


Fire Tests Gold

by theragingcajun



Series: Gymnastics AU [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Eventual Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, HoO - Freeform, PJO, Percabeth AU, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase - Freeform, gymnastics AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 59,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21931573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theragingcajun/pseuds/theragingcajun
Summary: Her brows drew together, a bit confused, but she answered anyways with a sigh.“Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson.”Chiron smiled, “They seem like a handful.”“You have no idea, they’re non-stop. All. The. Time.”He laughed, and handed the teacher a packet of forms and brochures. “In gymnastics, that’s a good thing. Would you mind if I gave you paperwork to give to their parents? They may benefit from a release of all that energy.”“Of course, I’d be happy to.”Then they were throwing kids into the white vans and driving away.Luke walked up to him, “Do you think we’ll see those two again?”The Fates must have smiled down upon Chiron in that moment as he said, “I hope so, I have a feeling they’ll be something great one day.”Gymnastics AU
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Series: Gymnastics AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579396
Comments: 82
Kudos: 263
Collections: Percabeth Fanfics





	1. Chiron

It was destiny that brought two young children into Chiron’s gym, that and a cancelled field trip.

The day that changed Chiron’s life had been an ugly one. Deep into October, dark grey clouds hid the sun, plunging New York into a cold and depressing darkness. The temperature wasn’t low enough yet to snow, so the weather had been switching back and forth between icy cold rains and sleeting. Chiron was grateful he spent the money to get the heater at his gym, Olympia, fixed before winter truly began in full force. 

During his gymnastics days there was no such thing as a heater or air conditioning, it was sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter, with hardly any in between. Once he started his own gym, (Thank the gods for the money he received from sponsorships after his Olympic games) Chiron knew he couldn’t let his gymnasts suffer the way he had. Gymnastics was hard enough without having to battle the elements too.

His phone rang, loud and shrill, snapping Chiron out of the morning paperwork. 

When he picked up, the voice on the other side was overtly perky and already speaking before he could manage “hello.”

“Hi! My name is Jessica and I’m with Ms. Bunny’s pre-school, we had a field trip scheduled for today, but the weather isn’t cooperating with us, is it possible for us to come to Olympia this afternoon instead? I already have the money and parental waivers.”

This predicament was nothing new to Chiron and he gladly accepted. Chiron would never deny a field trip of young children. Plus, the business part of him couldn’t pass up the extra cash and an opportunity for free advertising. And if one or two kids, decided they liked the sport and stuck with it for a few years, than all the better.

“Of course,” he replied, “I am always happy to help, I just have a few questions…” 

They discussed how long the visit would be, how many kids would be coming (25) and how old they were (4 and 5), whether she wanted obstacle courses or a free-for-all open gym (She opted for both) and whatever concerns she had. 

The conversation went quick, Jessica talked rapidly, her words all blending into each other. Chiron did have to admit, it was nice dealing with someone who got straight to the point and knew what she wanted. Lots of times these conversations lasted much longer than necessary. 

“Thank you so much for your help! We’ll see you in a couple of hours!”

After he hung up, Chiron made a few calls to his part-time coaches to see who could help him corral the young children who would soon be unleashed upon his gym. Tuesday mornings were never the busiest at the gym, so Chiron figured he only needed one additional set of hands.

Luckily Luke Castellan volunteered. He and Chiron spent the rest of the morning setting up obstacle courses and making a rotation schedule for the open gym, and before they knew it white vans were pulling into the parking lot and two dozen kids were running into the Big House. 

With the assistance of the teachers, Luke and Chiron helped the kids get out of their winter clothes and go over the basic rules of the gym. 

Chiron could still remember the blonde girl and a dark haired boy leading the pack as they lined up to enter the gym.

At the time, he didn’t think anything of it.

To warm up, Chiron told them, as soon as he opened the door, he wanted them all to run around the blue floor 3 times. 

The door was barely cracked when the girl and boy exploded into the gym, completing the first two laps before the others finished one. 

During stretching, Chiron couldn’t help but have his attention brought back to those two, he had never seen such energy, flexibility and coordination in children so young.

At one point, while Luke was demonstrating a dive forward roll, he jumped onto a trampoline, straightened himself out parallel to the ground and rolled out, he stood up with a flourish. The kids stared wide eyed.

“Would anyone like to try?” Luke joked, knowing full well none of the kids in the group would be able to manage the skill, even if it was a simple one at that.

But, the girls hand shot straight up, the boys was only a fraction of a second slower. 

What really caught Chiron’s attention was how fearless they were, While the other kids shrunk away, the girl wasted no time in running up to the trampoline, but instead of a dive roll, she jumped with too much power and did a front flip, landing perfectly on her feet.

Before Chiron had time to think, the boy was saying, “I can do that too, Annabeth!”

The boy replicated the same skill. 

Like it was nothing. 

With absolutely no formal training (that Chiron knew of).

Luke just stared at him, blinking slowly. His unspoken words conveyed perfectly clear, did that really just happen?

That was the first, but not last time that day Chiron thought he might have something special on his hands. 

At the end of their trip, Chiron couldn’t resist going up to Jessica to ask the names of those two kids.

Jessica had been as cheerful in person as she was on the phone. Her blonde hair was pulled up and her face was bright red from exertion. Even though she spent her days chasing after preschoolers, it was clear she wasn’t use to this type of a workout. 

Her brows drew together, a bit confused, but she answered anyways with a sigh.  
“Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson.”

Chiron smiled, “They seem like a handful.”

“You have no idea, they’re non-stop. All. The. Time.” 

He laughed, and handed the teacher a packet of forms and brochures. “In gymnastics, that’s a good thing. Would you mind if I gave you paperwork to give to their parents? They may benefit from a release of all that energy.”

“Of course, I’d be happy to.” 

Then they were throwing kids into the white vans and driving away.

Luke walked up to him, “Do you think we’ll see those two again?”

The Fates must have smiled down upon Chiron in that moment as he said, “I hope so, I have a feeling they’ll be something great one day.”


	2. Annabeth

*10 years later*

Annabeth stared down the uneven bars as she visualized her routine in her mind.

Gymnastics was all about repetition. Completing a skill over and over again until you had it committed to muscle memory. Until your body instinctively knew when to let go of the bar for a release move, or where you were at in the air for a tumbling pass.

Hundreds of hours of intense training had led Annabeth to this moment.

The American Cup.

This was her debut as a senior elite. She had been counting down the days until she was 16 and eligible for this level.

Technically, she still wasn’t 16, but since her birthday fell during the season, she could still compete with the other senior level gymnasts.

Doing well today could qualify Annabeth for the National Championships, the second most important competition of the year.

If she did well at Nationals, Annabeth had a good shot at being chosen for the selection camps for World’s. The biggest competition in gymnastics, except for the Olympics.

But she couldn’t think about that yet, Annabeth was getting ahead of herself. And that was not how you won competitions. She had to focus on the moment.

Thousands of people were packed into the arena. Annabeth had never been to a meet this large. All of her past meets and qualifiers consisted of spectators that were related to the gymnasts competing. Not people who showed up because they actually enjoyed watching the sport.

It was a refreshing change of pace.

Earlier in the day, Annabeth had nailed her floor routine. Now she was about to do the same on bars.

Her favorite event.

She scrubbed at her grips with chalk making sure there was an even coating. She had already made sure the bars were chalked down to her liking as well. Annabeth was not a superstitious gymnast, however, she did prefer things a certain way, especially for bars.

Annabeth tried to ignore the anxiety taking root in her mind. It was a lot to think about. And a lot that potentially could go wrong.

_What if she missed the judges raising the green flag for her to start?_

_What if she dropped a release move?_

_What if she tried her best and it’s still not enough?_

No matter the level she was at or how many times she competed, there was no escaping the nerves of competition day.

Annabeth forced those thoughts away.

Like Percy always said, “there was no time for negativity.”

Just the thought of his voice helped ease her anxiety, even when he wasn’t around her best friend was always able to ground her.

Waiting for the judges felt infinite, Annabeth had no idea what they did in between routines (whatever it was, they still shouldn’t take as long as they did)

The signal finally came. She saluted. Chest out, arms up, fingers back.

Breathe.

Annabeth ran, her feet pushing off the springboard, propelling herself forwards and upwards. Her hands skimmed the low bar before they grasped the high bar.

This is where the real work began. Annabeth’s body shifted into auto-pilot.

Annabeth visualized each move in her mind as she did it. She brought herself to a perfect handstand and a full pirouette. Then she immediately connected two release moves, each one flying just as high as the previous. The last of which she’d hoped would bare her name one day.

She ignored the cheers from the audience that this part of her routine elicited. The only voices she could hear was Coach Chiron reminding her to breathe and keep her arms straight and someone else screaming “Let’s go Annabeth!”

She flipped down to the low bar, performing a series of twists and turns, before flinging herself back up to the high bar. She completed one more full pirouette before her last release move.

Her body was burning, her muscles screamed in complaint, Annabeth ignored it and pushed through. Her willpower always proved stronger than her body.

She did one more giant swing to generate momentum for her dismount. She let go, at the last possible second, flipped twice and twisted once. When her feet hit the mat, she didn’t move a muscle.

The audience roared, along with her friends and coach. Annabeth saluted the judges and made her way to the side of the floor, where spectating gymnasts and coaches watched those competing.

Chiron greeted her with a huge smile, “That was excellent, almost perfect I’d say.”

Annabeth was out of breath, all she could muster was a nod and a smile.

The other gymnasts apart of her rotation all rushed to congratulate her. Piper McLean from California was the first to reach Annabeth, telling her it was one of the best routines she had seen so far.

Considering this was the American Cup, the season’s first major meet with some of the best elite gymnasts in the entire country that was high praise.

Hazel Levesque from Louisiana radiated excitement and congratulatory remarks, she was beaming from ear to ear as she said, “That was awesome Annabeth! You make me wish I didn’t hate bars.”

From their reactions you would think they weren’t competing against each other, but Annabeth understood. When you trained and sacrificed as much as they all had, you truly appreciated something amazing when you saw it. No matter if it put someone else a couple tenths of a point ahead.

Even Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano from Puerto Rico gave her a brief nod of approval, a compliment Annabeth did not take lightly from one of her biggest competitors.

Reyna was a year and half older than Annabeth, at 17 the other girl had already been a senior elite for a year. It had been that long since Annabeth had competed against her.

When they were juniors, the two of them were always neck in neck, coming in first and second place in most competitions. During that time, they had become good friends, but fierce rivals. Annabeth was glad to see her friend again, but knew it was going to take a lot of work to beat her consistently.

Annabeth sat down on one of the plastic chairs and dug in her duffel bag for her warm up gear. Why they insisted on keeping the arenas cold enough to freeze the gymnasts asses off, Annabeth would never know.

She pulled on a jacket and pants over her leotard while pretending to ignore the ESPN cameras beginning to surround her.

Going in to their first ever televised meet, Chiron made sure to warn Percy and Annabeth about being distracted by the cameras. “They’ll swarm you after each event, the better you’re doing in the standings, the more cameras there will be,” he had said, “Make sure you pay them no attention. Stay Focused.”

Chiron had never given them a longer pep talk before a meet, he usually kept it short, he never liked making a big deal of competition days, “Just another day at practice,” was his most famous mantra.

For that Annabeth was thankful, she didn’t know how she’d react if her coach was the type to crumble under pressure.

There was a brief break until the next event, she scanned the crowd hoping to see her mom or dad, even though she knew the likelihood of that was slim. Annabeth couldn’t remember the last time her parents were in the same room let alone when they both were at one of her competitions.

Instead, she focused on the next event.

Balance Beam.

Annabeth visualized her routine.

She wouldn’t allow herself to lose concentration now, just because her mom wouldn’t stop working long enough to pay her only daughter a little attention and her dad couldn’t find the time this weekend to travel the few hours it took to get to Albany.

This was her first ever senior meet, and she intended to win and go home with the big silver trophy that came with the title.

Not having support from her parents wouldn’t deter her. Not today.

Not ever again.

Winning would guarantee her a spot at Nationals, and winning there would help her get onto the National Team and selection camps for Worlds.

The team for the World competition wasn’t decided based on the winners of a competition like most. The American Cup scores would determine the best and most promising gymnasts, who would then qualify for the National Competition, where the best gymnast in the country would be determined.

After Nationals, about twenty girls would be selected to attend a camp and from that group the United States’ National Team would be chosen to represent the United States at the World Competition.

Annabeth had to get to Rome.

Worlds would show her how she’d match up against the other gymnasts from all over the planet, so she could see what work needed to be done to ensure she brought home gold at the Olympics next year.

“Quit concentrating so hard Wise Girl, you’re gonna pull something.”

She’d know that voice anywhere. “What are you doing, Seaweed Brain? You should be warming up, Chiron will kill you.”

Percy Jackson shook his head, “Not immediately; he’ll let me compete first.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. She wished she could have a laid back attitude like Percy on competition days. It just wasn’t in her nature though, overanalyzing was her specialty.

“What are you doing out here?” Percy rubbed at the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. “You know I love watching you compete. I missed floor, but from the look on my mom’s face, it was amazing.”

He smiled and her stomach dropped to the floor.

“You start in a few hours, you should go and warm up.”

He shrugged, not looking worried in the slightest, “I trust myself, I know what I’m capable of, anything extra will be over doing it.”

Annabeth envied his confidence. “Bold words, considering the winner today gets to pick the music in the gym, I’ve really taken a liking to Tibetan throat singing.”

“You’re a monster, Annabeth Chase.” But, his grin widened, making Annabeth’s stomach flip in ways only Percy could manage.

Whatever cocky thing he was about to say next was cut off by Chiron’s shouting. “Jackson, do you want to explain why you’re not in the back gym warming up?”

“I just wanted to watch a little,” he admitted, surprising Annabeth with the truth. She had expected some sarcastic remark about getting lost. “Can I stay for beam? Then I’ll warm up harder than I would have, had I been there for the full 2 hours.”

Chiron considered this, “Fine, but if you mess up on a basic skill today, you both will have extra workouts with Mr. D for two weeks.”

Percy looked horrified, and Annabeth was sure she had an identical look on her face too.

Chiron didn’t bluff, and the last thing either of them wanted to do was workout with Olympia’s psychotic assistant head coach. Annabeth punched him in the arm,

“You better not mess this up for us. I’m not training with Mr. D again, I still have nightmares.”

“Do you think that was the highlight of my life? We’ll be fine. Trust me.” Percy’s smile was pure confidence.

Chiron hurried them to the other side of the arena, where the other girls in Annabeth’s rotation had already started their two-touches. To warm up, each girl was allowed to touch the beam twice for 30 seconds max before they actually competed.

As Annabeth was setting her bags down and taking off her jacket, Percy grabbed her hand and pointed into the crowd.

“Look! There’s my mom.” He waved, adoration clear as day on his face. It was contagious, Annabeth caught herself waving just as energetically.

Sally was sitting in the first row, but she still had to shout to be heard over the crowd. “Great job sweetie, you’re looking terrific! I’m so proud of you.”

Annabeth beamed, leave it to Sally to always be there for her, especially when her own parents weren’t. She shouted back her thanks and hopped up to the platform, while Percy took a seat on the floor. Headphones already in his ears.

Annabeth got in line, while trying to visualize her routine, her mind began to wander to the other girls in her rotation. Even though they were all friends, Annabeth still needed to come out on top at the end of the day.

Balance Beam was not Annabeth’s best event, it really bothered her that she had the lowest difficulty score in the rotation. It was something she and Chiron had worked out a plan for in the coming months, and hopefully she would make major improvements by the next meet.

Piper had the most difficulty on beam out of everyone in the entire competition, but Annabeth didn’t know how consistent the other girl would be.

Piper didn’t always have a grasp on the mental part of gymnastics. She had good days and bad days. It was almost impossible to tell which was which until Piper was either sticking a difficult skill or falling multiple times in the same routine.

Hazel was a powerhouse, Annabeth had trouble figuring out how someone that small could generate so much power. Hazel’s floor routine had been amazing, and she definitely had more difficulty than Annabeth, for now, but, in terms of execution, Hazel could use improvement.

Annabeth assumed most of Hazel’s routines would be like that. There were always some coaches who focused on having their athletes throw their hardest skills, without focusing too much on the execution.

That left the wild card.

Reyna.

She had showed up to this meet with entirely different routines. Annabeth didn’t know what to think of that. From season to season, most gymnasts kept about 90% of their routines, but Reyna had changed almost everything for the American Cup.

Annabeth wanted to look at the scoreboard just to see the standings but she held her gaze tightly to the ground. If she looked now, she’d start to psych herself out and overanalyze even more than she already was.

Instead, she looked up to one of the private boxes, Annabeth could barely make out the form of her mother. But she could pick out Athena’s posture from space. Annabeth could only imagine her cold and calculating look as she watched the competition.

Most people in the gymnastics community had no clue that Annabeth Chase and Athena Parthenos, the national team coordinator, were related, let alone mother and daughter.

More than once, she wished that her mom hadn’t once been a gymnastics legend, that they could have a regular mother- daughter relationship. Instead Athena had always gone out of her way to prove that she wouldn’t treat Annabeth any differently than other gymnasts. Sometimes that meant flat out ignoring her. Other times it meant outright cruelty.

Hearing Piper’s name over the arena loudspeaker snapped Annabeth out of her thoughts.

Piper was first up, her beam routine was great, but shy of perfect. She had some minor wobbles and a big hop on the landing. It was apparent Piper wasn’t pleased with herself, but Annabeth congratulated her anyways.

So far Piper was having a good day.

Hazel went next. Her routine was well done only a few minor leg separations. The best part was her dismount, a double back with a full twist.

In the split second before Hazel’s arms came up to salute the judges, Annabeth had time to think to herself, _‘She had so much power, she could add another twist to that one day.’_

The excitement on Hazel’s face once she finished was clear, Annabeth and the other girls cheered and hugged her. Percy even gave her a high-five.

Annabeth felt better knowing Percy was there, he was like a good luck charm (not that she needed luck, she preferred hard work). But, he had been there since she started gymnastics when she was 5, he’d been there through good times and the bad, through injuries and losses. There was never a time when she didn’t want him out here supporting her. She knew he felt the same way about her too.

Annabeth looked at him only once before stepping up to the beam. He winked

at her, she rolled her eyes and smiled, glad to have a semblance of normalcy. Annabeth now had to wait for the green flag from the judges to signal that she could begin her routine. She took a deep breath and expelled all thoughts from her head.

No more thoughts of Percy, the crowd, her parents, what place she may or may not be in, only thoughts of a successful beam routine.

The judges finally raised the flag, Annabeth saluted and took a deep breath.

With only 4 inches to stand on, you had to come at the balance beam with the utmost confidence, anything less and you’d give away too many wobbles or balance checks, and that was the best case scenario. You couldn’t even let the idea of falling enter your mind.

Annabeth’s mount was something she stole from watching Percy on pommel horse. A series of three flares, where she swings her legs in circles around her body. It was one of her favorite parts of the routine.

Next was a tumbling pass, taking up the entire length of the 16 foot apparatus. She landed as effortlessly as she would have on the floor.

The rest was a blur, her mind stopping while her body took over. She felt herself flip, jump, turn, and twist. Somewhere in her mind, she registered the crowd cheering, somebody’s floor exercise music, the other girls screaming her name, and above it all was Percy and Chiron.

She tuned it all out.

With each stuck landing her confidence was growing and her nerves lessening. The next few elements were all solid. Nothing short of an earthquake could move Annabeth when she was this in the zone.

A beep sounded, signaling Annabeth had 10 seconds to dismount the beam before she was deducted.

Breathe.

She ran, pushed off the beam with all her strength, jumped as high as her legs could get her, half twisted in the air and flipped herself forward twice.

When her feet hit the mat, her left leg betrayed her, she took a small step forward. Annabeth had to stop herself from cringing.

She smiled and saluted.

Camera crews were the first to meet Annabeth as she stepped down off the platform, she tried to ignore them but she found out the best way to make them leave was to give a quick smile and a wave.

It was a great routine, she knew by the sound of the crowd and the looks on Piper and Hazel’s face. Even Reyna looked impressed, again.

When she got to Percy, his smile was wide, he pulled her into a rib crushing hug.

“Stop with that face, Annabeth, Do not beat yourself up because of that small step on the double Arabian. “

“That was a pretty good routine,” She admitted. Probably her best ever. Even counting practice.

Percy threw his head back and laughed, he hugged her again. “It was the best I’ve ever seen you do, I’m sorry I can’t stay for vault. If I don’t go warm up soon, Chiron’s head might spin.”

He grabbed his own duffle bag, “Thanks for watching,” she said. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, see you on the podium, Wise Girl.” She watched as he disappeared down the hallway leading to the practice gym.

She let her mind wander to the boy walking away, she found thinking about Percy during meets helped ease the anxiety of competing. It was better than dwelling on what was going to happen next, if she would mess up on her last routine, or not. Reyna’s name came over the loudspeaker, she was up last in their rotation.

As soon as Reyna began, Annabeth could tell the routine was new. She had added to her difficulty quite a bit since last time they competed against each other. She didn’t look as confident as normal. She had wobbles and balance checks on the simplest of skills. Her shoulders, which were normally squared were a little too hunched forward.

On one particular move, an aerial connected to a back tuck with a full twist, she landed with her chest too low to the beam and her feet off center.

The audience gasped audibly.

Reyna stood up too fast, throwing off her center of gravity, her arms wind-milling as her left leg shot off to the side. She was able to correct herself through sheer force of will it appeared, without falling, but it was still a huge mistake. At least a three tenth deduction.

“You got this Reyna!” Annabeth called, Hazel and Piper both joined in, calling out encouragements that Reyna probably couldn’t hear.

The rest of the routine was excellent, Reyna performed normally without showing she made a major mistake.

Her dismount was a beautiful triple twist that would have been perfect if not for a small hop backwards on the landing.

Hazel was the first to congratulate her, “That dismount was gorgeous.”

Piper and Annabeth both agreed. They talked while gathering their belongings. Reyna's coach came and pulled her away, they spoke in hushed tones.

They had about 20 minutes before their last event and they were all trying to make the time pass as quick as possible.

“So, was that Percy Jackson earlier?” Hazel asked.

Piper added, “Isn’t he almost a sure thing for first place today? Why was he out here?”

Annabeth tried her best to explain, in the quickest way possible. “Yeah, but we’ve been training at the same gym since we were kids, he’s my best friend, so we always try and watch the other compete.”

“Well, does he have a girlfriend? Reyna asked, “I bet he’d be a pretty good distraction before meets.”

Hazel and Piper laughed, but Annabeth didn’t know what to say, and thankfully she was saved by Piper switching the subject to talk about her dad’s terrible new movie.

“It’s going to be the worst movie ever made.” “Are you just being dramatic?” Reyna asked.

Piper described the movie, in excruciating detail. “Can you believe that? Somewhere, somebody wrote a script, about a marine researcher falling in love with a dolphin and then turning the dolphin into a human. Somebody greenlit that.”

Reyna was holding back a laugh, “Fine. That does sound terrible.”

“Seriously, what’s the point having a movie star parent if I can’t meet Serena Williams or the kids from Stranger Things at premiers?”

“Maybe they’ll get Serena Williams to play the dolphin,” Annabeth said, “It’s not like she’s busy or anything.”

They laughed and were soon ushered over to vault by their coaches.

It was a bit of a blessing, ending the meet on vault. Whenever your last event was floor or beam, your body got tired, no matter how much you trained, it was inevitable when you competed all four events.

Vault however, didn’t last long, there was no 2 minute routine you had to get through, only 20 seconds.

20 seconds away from potentially winning the American Cup.

Just the thought gave her goosebumps.

While dropping off their bags, they passed Katie Gardner’s group on their way to beam with Drew Tanaka, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and Thalia Grace. They talked quickly to each other, caught up and wished one another luck.

Annabeth’s group had a short break while the other gymnasts warmed up for their apparatuses.

Vaulting was quick, the other events took about 2-3 minutes give or take, so in order for everyone to finish at the same time, those on vault had a little extra time before they began.

“After the meet today do any of you want to join Percy and me for pizza? It’s a post-meet tradition we have.” Annabeth asked. She genuinely missed seeing these girls for the past few months.

Their next meet was only about a month away, but right now it felt like years.

Hazel sighed, “Pizza sounds great, I haven’t had it in so long.”

“What would our coaches say?” Reyna said.

“That we deserve to treat ourselves.” Piper said, “They of all people know how hard we work. One slice isn’t goi-“ Gasps and cries from the crowd stopped Piper’s words dead in their tracks.

They all looked around to see what the commotion was about. It didn’t take long to find Clarisse La Rue on the ground by balance beam, grasping her right knee.

Within seconds coaches were surrounding her, Clarisse writhed in pain, her face bright red with the effort it took not to cry. After a few minutes, Clarisse’s coach lifted her off the mats and carried her off the floor.

Annabeth looked at the other girls, their mouths were wide with shock and horror. It was rare for a gymnast to have that bad of a fall during a meet.

“I hope she can come back from that,” Reyna said.

World’s was about 6 months away, they all were striving to make the team, pushing themselves to be better. It would be devastating to potentially miss out because of an injury.

“Selection camp for Worlds are soon, hopefully it’s enough time.” Piper said, reading Annabeth’s mind.

Annabeth couldn’t imagine training as hard as they did and then getting injured and not being able to make it to the biggest meet of the year. It was one thing to try your absolute best and not make it because others were better and something else entirely to be out because of an injury.

This year, Worlds was in Rome, and Annabeth had to make the team. If she wanted any shot of the Olympics next year in Athens, Greece.

Being chosen for Worlds, however, all came down to a selection camp that would be decided sometime after Nationals next month.

“I’d hate going next after that.” Annabeth said. The others nodded in solemn agreement. A huge part of gymnastics was mental, and watching a fellow gymnast be carried out of the gym could be traumatizing at best.

When they were finally given the go ahead to start warming up vault, Annabeth forced herself to put Clarisse to the back of her mind. She hoped the other girls could do the same.

***

Gymnastics was a crazy sport.

Anyone who spent hours of their life training skills that could kill if done horribly wrong, had to have a screw loose somewhere.

To Annabeth, the craziest event was vault.

She’d sprint, full speed, toward a stationary object and hope she flung and twisted herself in such a way, that she managed to land upright on her feet. Instead of smashing her face into the vaulting table.

As, Annabeth stood at the end of the runway, she only let herself think about the insanity of what she was about to do once.

_Breathe._

Annabeth visualized her first vault in her mind. It would be her first time performing in a competition. She kept her thoughts positive, she would not panic. She spent days and nights training this new vault. She trusted herself. She was ready.

The judges raised the flag.

_Breathe._

Annabeth saluted, and took off running. 

She did a round-off, her legs slamming into the springboard, throwing herself backwards into a back handspring. As her hands hit the table, she pushed off hard flying high into the air. She kept her body completely straight while twisting two and a half times. When she hit the mat, Annabeth stepped forward with her left leg.

She saluted the judges again, pleased with herself. So was Chiron, on the side of the floor.

“Nice work that was a beautiful Amanar.” Annabeth heard her opponents cheering much of the same.

The next vault was Annabeth’s last of the day. The whole meet, the difference between 1st and 2nd place could come down to this.

It was a good thing this was a vault she could do in her sleep.

The judges raised the flag, Annabeth saluted once more.

She took off running, unlike last time she’d be going forward onto the vaulting table. Annabeth pounded off the springboard trying to give herself as much power as she could get. When her hands hit the table, she pushed off with as much force as she could muster and quickly pulled her arms to her body, to help spin faster. She completed one and a half twists, laid out completely straight.

This time, when Annabeth’s feet hit the mat, she knew she wasn’t moving.

She saluted the judges for the final time and walked over to a grinning Chiron.

“You’re weird when you smile.” Annabeth said.

“Check out the scoreboard and you might forget how weird I am,” He said.

Annabeth shook her head, “Reyna still has to go, I’ll look once she’s done.”

She had never been a scoreboard tracker. Annabeth preferred to leave everything up in the air. The judges and scores were the one thing she could not control. Annabeth could have an absolutely perfect routine, but if the judges took off any points, that was their decision and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

Plus, if she didn’t know where she was placed, she couldn’t worry about being a few tenths behind or a few tenths ahead. It left her to work her routines as always with no other variables involved.

“Percy’s first event is about 20 minutes after the press junket, so you’ll have to talk quickly to get to your seat in time.”

Before she could respond to Chiron, Annabeth heard the springboard and looked up in time to see Reyna land a stunning double twisting Yurchenko, only to take a huge leap forward.

Her second vault was more of the same, an excellent vault, it just needed work on the landing.

Chiron smiled, he grasped her shoulder turning her towards the leaderboard, “Take a look now.”

When Annabeth looked up, her name was first.

She stood, dumbstruck waiting for the scoreboard to change.

It didn’t.

Then she heard the announcer say her name, and she was hit by a rush of excitement like a wave, goose-bumps erupted all over her body.

S _he_ just won the American Cup.

She jumped into Chiron’s arms, something Annabeth hadn’t done since she was 5 and won her first ever medal.

Chiron hugged her tight, Annabeth was smiling and laughing, she couldn’t remember a time she had been this happy. Cameras swarmed the two of them from all sides. She should have been acting stoic, like she had been in this situation before, but she couldn’t bring herself to drop her smile and let go of Chiron. Her first ever senior meet (as a 15 year old!) and she won.

“One step closer kiddo.”

The girls swarmed Annabeth next, engulfing her in a giant hug.

“You deserve it,” Hazel said, without any hard feelings, she had come in fifth place, which out of all the gymnasts in the nation was exceptional.

Piper hugged her again, “We need to make plans to try and train at each other’s gym; I hate only seeing you at meets.” Piper was tied for third with Katie.

Annabeth nodded, “Deal. But, it would help if you moved closer to New York.”

The other girl laughed, “Or you could move to California, you’d have a place to stay with me.”

After Annabeth pretended to think about her offer, Piper went off to talk to Thalia Grace, the second place winner of the day.

Reyna had come in fourth place. A remarkable feat considering all the mistakes she had made, usually that put you much farther down on the leaderboard.

Reyna considered Annabeth coolly, “you earned it this time Chase, but next time, your spot is mine.”

“I look forward to watching you try,” They hugged and Annabeth was shuffled off to give an interview.

As Annabeth walked away she heard Reyna call out, “I’ll be better by Nationals.”

“So will I.”

Reporters swarmed her without any organization. Everyone talked at once to the point that Annabeth couldn’t understand a single word from anyone. A woman from ESPN looking out of place in a pantsuit and high heels, stepped forward, and took control of the situation. She shoved a microphone in Annabeth’s face and began asking questions. Annabeth tried to keep it short. Handing out generic answers about acting like today was just another practice and giving 110% and any other clichés that managed to answer their questions.

“Your teammate, Percy Jackson, is set to compete in a few minutes, how do you think he’ll fair?”

For the first time during the interview, Annabeth gave a genuine reply, “If he does what I know he’s capable of, there’s absolutely no stopping him.”

“Will you watch the men compete?”

Annabeth smiled, “Of course, Percy’s mom already has a seat saved for me. We always watch together when we can.”

Annabeth looked up to where Sally was sitting, beaming with pride.

The reporter continued with a few more questions, like Annabeth’s goals for Nationals and Worlds and how excited she was to win her first meet at this level. She answered all their questions with grace and tact, just the way her mother had trained her.

Finally finished, Annabeth grabbed her bag and started to make her way over to Sally. Chiron was already with Percy, giving him final advice. It didn’t appear as though Percy was listening, he was staring straight at Annabeth an enormous grin splitting his face. 

“You did it!” he shouted loudly from across the entire gym. 

Annabeth tried her best not to look embarrassed. The last thing she saw before getting to her seat was Chiron swatting Percy with the back of his hand and repeating whatever advice he was giving before. But Percy’s eyes were glued to her, he winked, and then finally gave his full attention to Chiron. 

Sally hugged her as soon as she got to her seat, “I’m so proud of you Annabeth, you were amazing.”

“Thanks, it hasn’t really sunk in yet, I keep thinking I’m going to wake up.”

Sally smiled, “There’s no waking up from this one sweetheart, it’s the real deal.”

*******

_All in all, Percy’s day was going rather excellently_ , Annabeth thought.

He had done the best parallel bar routine she had ever seen him do. Then he had absolutely killed it on pommel horse, Annabeth had never seen an audience get so excited for an event that could put even the most dedicated of gymnastics fans to sleep. His new routine on rings went over better than she (and quite possibly he) would have expected considering he upgraded his old routine by more than a point and completely changed his dismount.

Percy was sitting in 2nd place, with his three best events in front of him. The smile he sent her way as he moved towards vault made her weak. She loved all aspects of Percy, but competition Percy was her absolute favorite. Anyone could tell he was completely in love with the sport, from his smile to the way he glided from event to event with excitement. There was nothing like it.

Percy was last in his group to go, Annabeth watched as he talked animatedly with the others in his rotation. She watched Jason Grace, Leo Valdez, and Frank Zhang all take their turn to warm up on vault. After each pass Percy would congratulate his opponents, and then start back up whatever topic they had previously been discussing.

On his first vault, Percy would do a double back off the table. On the warm up pass, he took a small hop to the side. She watched as Chiron gave him a bit of advice. By the time he got to the actual competition part, his vault was almost flawless.

The second vault, he had been having trouble with the blind landing and had been pretty inconsistent at practice.

Competition, however, brought the best out in Percy. As he ran down the runway, Sally grabbed Annabeth’s hand tight and turned her head away from the vaulting runway.

Percy jumped on the springboard, his hands pushed off the vaulting table, quickly flipping his body forward and twisting twice at the same time, and when he landed it was with only the slightest step forward.

She cheered and shouted his name, Sally looked up, relief plain across her face.

It had to be hard for a parent to watch, Annabeth thought. Vault was especially hard for Sally, this was the event that Percy had hurt himself on a few years back, even though Percy had put the injury behind him, Sally couldn’t.

Gymnasts tiptoed a fine line between ‘Holy shit that’s awesome’ and ‘holy shit they’re dead’ but the sheer excitement on Percy’s face had to make this all worth it for Sally.

Chiron and his competitors all congratulated him, they high-fived and patted him on the back.

He was still in second, but Percy had managed to creep closer to Octavian. There was only two tenths of a point that separated them.

“Come on Percy. You got this!” She shouted loud enough for him to hear, he turned, flashed her a smile and a thumbs up before following the rest of the guys in his rotation to floor.

Annabeth was frequently jealous of the men’s floor routines. They did 5-6 tumbling passes, something to show off their flexibility and strength, and a couple of jumps. Compared to the goofy choreography the women had to do, the men’s floor was practically easy.

This was one of the events Sally could watch completely. Even so, she tended to squirm and move around a bit in her seat. All Annabeth could do was sit close and offer her support.

Percy’s group had about 10 minutes until they were done warming up, and probably another 20 before the judges were actually ready to start. Judges loved to take their time, Annabeth wasn’t sure if they enjoyed messing with the athletes nerves or if they actually were doing something productive.

After what felt like forever, it was Percy’s turn. His routine started off great. His first two tumbling passes both ended with stuck landings, the air flairs afterwards were phenomenal. She loved to hear the crowd’s excitement whenever Percy elevated the flairs by jumping from hand to hand in the middle. (A skill he copied from break dancers in New York City) It was a move she watched him try to perfect for months, she remembered him falling on his face countless times and all the rug burns she teased him about before he finally got it right.

It was the next tumbling pass that gave him a bit of trouble. A triple twist that he under rotated, so when he landed, it was in a low squatting position. Sally squeezed her hand tight.

“That’s alright, he’s got this.” She yelled it once too, knowing Percy couldn’t hear, but it did help calm some of Annabeth’s nerves.

The next tumbling pass went over better, with only a small step on the landing. For his last tumbling pass, technically the dismount, Annabeth was pretty sure she held her breath. He landed it perfectly. He saluted the judges and practically ran off the floor to Chiron, who patted him on the back.

It was a good routine with only a few mistakes, nothing he should be unhappy with. But he was a scoreboard watcher, and he knew how close he was to first place. His group congratulated him.

All the boys in Percy’s rotation were doing pretty well actually, they were all in the top 5 so far. But, there was still one event left, and that could change everything.

Gymnastics was a fickle sport, you could be riding the top of the scoreboard for most of the competition, and one mistake could drop you down to the bottom of the pack.

Annabeth could see Octavian warming up pommel horse, while Percy would be moving to high bar, his best event. Many gymnasts crumbled under pressure, but Percy thrived on it. His best work was always done in high pressure situations. That was one of his favorite parts of gymnastics.

She admired him for it.

Annabeth quickly tallied up the scores and did the math to see what Percy would need to beat Octavian.

15.000

That was all Percy would need to beat him, and that was if Octavian got a perfect score on pommel horse and the likelihood of that was infinitesimally small.

A 15 flat. He could put up a score like that in his sleep. The maximum score he could get was a 16.5 that left room for a point and a half for deductions. Theoretically, Percy could fall off the high bar and still beat Octavian. But she didn’t think about that too much, for fear of putting negative energy into the air.

Percy stepped up to the bar, waiting for the judges to give him the go ahead. Sally squeezed her hand.

“He’ll be fine, Percy loves high bar,” She told the older woman.

Even so, as soon as Percy’s hands touched the bar, Annabeth stopped breathing. She talked a big game to Sally, but she was more nervous watching Percy compete than she was competing herself.

Sally’s gentle squeeze turned into a death grip. Annabeth resisted the urge to tell her how incredibly important a gymnasts hands were.

Percy’s routine consisted of a lot of high flying, fast paced release moves. Butterflies danced in Annabeth’s stomach at the very thought of what he was about to do.

The first release in his routine was immediate, a simple hop over the bar that he caught cleanly. The crowd gasped.

 _Just wait,_ she thought, _it gets better._

The next release was much harder, a double front flip with a half twist. The crowd loved it, high bar was one of the most exciting events, and Percy knew how to put on a show. He pirouetted and spun and flipped himself around. At one point he did a full giant swing with only one arm. Annabeth could tell Sally was watching because every time he left the bar, she squeezed her hand tighter and tighter.

His last two release moves came up, and he caught each one perfectly.

Percy wound up for the dismount, when he let go, Annabeth had to force her eyes to stay open, Sally was starting to cut off the circulation to her hand. Percy flipped twice and twisted twice, when his feet hit the ground, there was only the smallest of steps forward.

The crowd erupted. Sally and herself included.

She just watched her best friend become the men’s American Cup Champion.

There was no way in the world that routine would score anything under a 15. It was so close to perfect. Only a few slight leg separations that they’d work on later in practice.

Chiron was grinning as he hugged Percy, he high-fived his opponents as he ran over to the area where Annabeth and Sally sat in the front row. He was out of breath as he stared up at the scoreboard. After a few minutes of anxious waiting, his score came up.

16.000. Percy’s name jumped to the top of the leaderboard. He won by almost a full point, an almost unheard of feat.

The crowd erupted into a chorus of cheers, a group of young kids started a chant of Percy’s name.

Percy, ever the entertainer, waved to the crowd and even joined in with the chant

They locked eyes and Percy smiled as he shouted, “We did it!”

A couple of cameras began to circle around Percy, he waved to one and even though she couldn’t hear him any longer, Annabeth watched him mouth “Hi Mom!” to the cameras.

Annabeth didn’t think she had seen Percy this excited at a meet ever. Hopefully they’d be doing this all again at Nationals next month. 

Surprising both her and Sally, Percy jumped over the short platform separating the audience from the athletes and squashed Annabeth and his mom into a gigantic hug.

She ignored the cameras that rushed up to them, some from the news networks covering the meet and others from audience members. They were making a spectacle, she knew, but there was no way to stop.

They were both shaking with laughter, Percy had a giddy smile that made Annabeth’s heart melt. She didn’t think either of them had been so happy in their lives.

Hopefully, this was just the start.

Tears welled up in Sally’s eyes, “I’m so proud of you both.” Percy squeezed her hand in his, his sea green eyes staring lovingly at his mom. He was still hanging from the railing that separated the crowd from the competition floor. They silently stared at one another letting the moment and enormity of what just happened sink in.

And just like that, they were all laughing again.

***

Annabeth snuck her way back onto the competition floor to watch as Percy gave his own interview to the same woman and group of reporters she had talked to a few hours earlier. Percy was always a nervous wreck during interviews, so she hung back for moral support.

She listened to the ridiculous questions they asked.

“How does it feel to be the American Cup Champion?”

“What are your goals going forward?”

He answered their questions with only a small amount of stammering. Then the reporter asked,

“You and Annabeth Chase are two of the most dominant and youngest competitors we’ve seen at this level in years, and you both train at the same gym, what’s your secret?”

Percy smiled, “We’ll we’re actually not fully human, we’re part Greek god.” The reporter laughed while he continued.

“Honestly though, it’s all Annabeth.” Percy motioned to Annabeth behind the cameras. “Maybe a little bit of Coach Chiron, but Annabeth has always had enough motivation for both of us. When I’m having a tough day, she picks me back up and sets me on the right track. I wouldn’t want to go through this journey with anyone but her.”

He was being modest. Percy was just as determined as she was, and had been since the minute they realized that they were both pretty damn good at this whole gymnastics thing. He was always there for her too, in some of the darkest times and worst moments of her life, Percy was there to make everything better.

The reporter smiled, “It sounds like I need an Annabeth Chase in my life.

Percy shook his head, “Sorry but, there’s only one Annabeth Chase, and I'm keeping her."


	3. Percy

“Mr. Jackson?”

Percy’s head whipped up from his desk, eyes bulging.

“Yes ma’am?”

“I’m just hoping to get a few minutes of your attention before you fall back asleep.” Mrs. Dodds was looking down her glasses at him.

Percy silently cursed himself, the only downside to a nearby competition, was that Annabeth and his mom always made him go to school the next day. To make matters worse, they had spent all night yesterday partaking in his and Annabeth’s post meet pizza tradition with a bunch of other gymnasts.

They had spent all night at the restaurant laughing and eating for as long they could bare their server’s sidelong glances. It had been a long time since he was able to hang out with other gymnasts without wearing a leotard.

It was a great night, he wouldn’t change a second of it. But then, he had to make the 3 hour drive back home. And it did not matter, that it was after midnight when Percy finally fell into bed, he was still forced to go to school the next day. He even tried to play the whole ‘I just won the American Cup’ card, which didn’t work.

“Nice try,” his mother had said, “But maybe when you’re a National Champion.”

Many elite gymnasts were homeschooled, in order to spend more time at the gym. But Annabeth and his mom always stressed the importance of a real education.

_“We’re not going to be gymnasts forever, Percy”_ Annabeth would say.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t coach or own his own gym. When Percy thought about his future, there were only three constants: his mom, Annabeth, and gymnastics. The sport had been a part of his life for as long as he could remember, giving it up would be as easy as giving up his right arm.

So, he didn’t really see why it was important to be able to graph a parabola or understand the consequences of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.

Annabeth’s voice came firing back, _“We need to have some semblance of a normal life, outside of the gym.”_

He sighed, even in his own head Annabeth won their arguments.

It was at that moment, Percy realized Mrs. Dodds was still waiting for him to respond.

He said the first thing that came to mind. “Sorry, ma’am, I don’t know what came over me, this class is truly the best part of my day.”

He heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him. Mrs. Dodds looked down her nose at him, ready to pounce. But, the gods were on his side this time, because before she could reply, the bell rang. He grabbed his bag and bolted for the door.

Grover was close on his heels. “Why are you like this?”

Percy grasped the bridge of his nose, “I just couldn’t stop myself.”

“You’ll be lucky if she doesn’t give you a referral,” Grover said as they walked into their English class with Mr. Blofis. This was his favorite part of the school day, because it was the one time that Percy had a class with Annabeth and Grover.

Annabeth was waiting for them, in their normal spot in the back, her notebook already out. The bell rang and Mr. Blofis strode in, letting the classroom door shut behind him.

“Good afternoon everybody, how was your weekend?” He asked.

The class replied back in a chorus of “goods” and “alrights.” Annabeth looked to Percy a smirk on her face.

She had let her hair down, in a riot of princess curls that framed her face. How she had found time to shower, he wasn’t sure. She was beautiful in her Junior Olympics t-shirt and old jeans.

He smiled back, he knew without her having to say anything what she was thinking. It was surreal to go from being on the top of the nation and giving interviews to major sports networks like ESPN and NBC, to being a normal sophomore in high school.

“So continuing with our creative writing unit, I want you to write about this past weekend. Except, I want you to change the tone. Focus on one part of your weekend, if it was a sad moment, make the tone happy, if you were bored I want to feel excited when I read it. This is open to your interpretation, you have 20 minutes today for a rough draft. “

Percy looked over, Annabeth and Grover were already scribbling away, jotting down ideas for their assignment.

Percy started writing as many words he could associate with the past weekend hoping that he’d get an idea from somewhere, and before he knew it, Mr. Blofis was calling time and telling them to move on to SAT prep.

_One more hour._

It was all that separated Percy from the gym.

***

Percy’s feet jittered along the grimy subway floor. Annabeth had just helped Percy finish up the last of his math homework. They had a 45 minute subway ride from Goode Academy to Olympia. It made for the perfect opportunity to finish any homework so when they got home from the gym, they could recover from the days workout and go to bed. Or so Annabeth told him almost every day, as she tried to convince him to do his homework instead of listening to music and taking a quick nap.

Normally, they wouldn’t work-out after a meet, especially one as mentally and physically taxing as yesterday, but Chiron had texted them both earlier that morning asking them to come in for a couple of hours.

“We should probably try and write our lab report for science and then we can use the same article for current events in history, but you’ll have to write your own summary, Mr. Brunner will notice if you copy mine.” Annabeth told him.

Something about her today was off, normally they’d talk more, but she was in a ‘Go Go Go’ mood that made Percy think she was trying to avoid something.

“Are you ok? You seem…” his voice trailed off, his mind trying to figure out the best way to put this. “Too focused.”

Annabeth slumped in her seat, resting her head on his shoulder. Percy felt his heart speed up. But, her next words made his blood turn to ice in his veins.

“My mom came over to my dad’s house this morning to have a nice chat.”

“Shit.”

Annabeth sighed in agreement, “Yeah, it was rough.”

She detailed the experience for him. How her mom showed up at 7:30 already complaining that Annabeth was still asleep, even though they didn’t get home until late last night. And that they, Annabeth and Percy, had come to an agreement to skip their 1st period gym class, since they had pretty much done the equivalent of an entire years’ worth of P.E. in just one day alone.

Athena began ranting about what Annabeth did wrong at the American Cup and what she would need to fix before Nationals. While her dad sat quietly, sipping on a cup of coffee. The only indication that he was actually listening was when Frederick stopped Athena mid rant to say:

“You _won_ yesterday? Right?” Annabeth couldn’t tell if he was asking because he didn’t watch the meet at all and he had no idea what place she came in, or if he knew that she had won and her father was trying to figure out why Athena was criticizing her so harshly.

Then her parents had begun to fight, in earnest. Instead of listening, Annabeth had gotten ready for school.

“I doubt they even realized I left.”

“Ask your dad if you can spend the night at the apartment, we’ll have a movie marathon, order Chinese food and forget all about your parents.” They did have a strict diet they had to closely follow, but one day wasn’t going to hurt anything.

Annabeth smiled and agreed. “I’ll text my dad and let him know. I’ll tell him were working on a project.”

Percy knew she must have been in a bad mood, because normally she didn’t agree to movie nights so quickly. He texted his own mom letting her know Annabeth was going to spend the night and about the unfolding situation.

“Matthew and Bobby made me a paper ribbon and a trophy, they left them on my bed last night.”

“I bet they watched on TV, for as clueless as your dad is, he had to of watched some of it, your step monster too.” Percy was trying to reassure her, but he really couldn’t understand her family at all. 

Annabeth was the funniest, smartest, prettiest, strongest, most amazing person he had ever met. Percy felt sorry for her family because they were missing out on knowing and loving the person Annabeth was.

His own mother attended every single meet, no matter where it was at, or how much it would cost. He couldn’t imagine going to a competition without having Sally there.

“ _I can write anywhere, Percy and if I tell my publishers I’m going for research, they may even pay for me_.” 

That’s how she justified flying around the country and sometimes even the world with him. He knew gymnastics was expensive, she spent so much on leotard singlets, warm up gear, grips, gym fees and a whole bunch of other things Percy takes for granted, but Sally always supported him, no matter what. 

For the rest of the ride to the gym, they talked like normal, Annabeth wasn’t exactly herself, but it was an improvement. They talked about nothing and everything; the next Marvel movie coming out, what new upgrades they wanted to add to their routines (they had a lot of work ahead of them), and the weird stuff that happened at school.

By the time they got to the gym, not much of their homework was done but Annabeth was in better spirits and that’s what mattered most to Percy.

Most of the rec classes had already started at Olympia, so the waiting room was full of parents. Some were talking to each other, reading books, working on laptops, pretty much anything it took to survive the boredom.

Other parents, the crazy gym parents, were watching their kids intently, these were the people who were expecting their 5 year old to make it the Olympics tomorrow. The ones who didn’t see the dedication and hard work it took to get to the elite level, let alone the Olympics. They were the reason that the gym had to put signs up that read: “No parental coaching! Parents are not permitted inside the gym.” And even so, there were some parents who always tried to pop their head through the door into the gym to scream at their kid to point their toes or keep their legs straight. As if their coach wasn’t already telling them that.

When Percy and Annabeth walked through the doors of the Big House, the main building of the gym where the behind the scenes happened, all eyes turned to them.

Conversation stopped abruptly.

A chorus of congratulations erupted, some even applauded. And when they finally made their way through all the parents and got into the gym, hanging on one of the walls were two huge banners with ‘American Cup Champion’ written across the top in big bold letters and huge pictures of both Percy and Annabeth on the first place podium from the awards ceremony at the meet.

They had a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a gigantic silver trophy in the other, and they were grinning from ear to ear. At the time, Percy had been so ecstatic that he hadn’t even noticed all the cameras, he definitely hadn’t expected an enormous banner would be made to commemorate the occasion.

Percy broke the brief moment of silence first, “What if we had lost?”

Annabeth said, stunned, “it hasn’t even been a full 24 hours yet.”

A voice came up behind them. “I had them expedited for you, I ordered them late last night.”

Chiron was beaming, it was apparent how proud he was. Annabeth and Percy were the only two elite gymnasts that Olympia had ever produced. Not to mention American Cup winners.

Just thinking about that was surreal and strange, like one day Percy was going to wake up and everything he accomplished would be gone.

“I even told both your parents, hopefully they’ll be by to see, I’m really proud, you two worked so hard for this.”

They both choked out a thanks, it wasn’t every day that Chiron was heartfelt, after almost a full decade under his tutelage, it was a rare occurrence.

He asked next, “How sore are the two of you?”

Percy and Annabeth responded at the same, “8.”

Walking up and down the stairs at school had left Percy’s body screaming almost as bad as his high bar routine. He couldn’t have imagined what gym class would have been like had he attended instead of sleeping in.

Chiron led them to one of the back recovery rooms, over the years Chiron had slowly added equipment for them to use. They started out with foam rollers, tubs and ice machines they used after practice each day to reduce swelling and soreness. There was even an inversion table for special cases. As Percy and Annabeth progressed throughout the years, they added in some serious and expensive hardware.

“I call using Emily first!” Annabeth said hurrying over to the EMS complex. Emily was the name they had given to the machine. It was basically a massager that you attached to sore areas. Percy wasn’t entirely sure how Emily worked, because every time Annabeth or Chiron tried to explain it, he tended to zone out. All Percy knew was that she performed miracles on his body.

“Fine, I’ll use the Leg sleeves then,”

“Call him by his real name,”

“Legolas is not his real name, I don’t think it suits him. I prefer Steve.”

The leg sleeves were the most recent addition to the Recovery Room, they had been trying to find a name for almost a week now.

“Steve the Leg Sleeves?” Annabeth was not enthused.

“Chiron, which would you rather?” Percy asked as Chiron was attaching the nodules to Annabeth’s shoulders and arms.

“Not my battle,” he deadpanned. 

Once Chiron finished with Annabeth he came over to help Percy put on the leg sleeves, they didn’t look special, more like giant ski pants. But as he felt the pulsing massages, Percy knew Steve was pure magic.

“I’m setting a timer, I have to go help Luke with his rec class real quick, if I’m not back by then, come find me, we have a couple of important matters to discuss.”

Percy was about to say something to Annabeth when he realized that her attention was focused more on her phone, a wrinkle between her brows.

A text from her dad then, if it was her mom she’d be more angry than annoyed.

“What does your dad want?” He asked once she put her phone down and looked at him.

She rolled her eyes, “You don’t know that it was my dad.”

“Tell me I’m wrong then,” Annabeth didn’t reply, and Percy needed no other confirmation to prove he was right.

Annabeth continued a moment later, “He was vague, he just said he wanted to talk to me about something. I might have to raincheck our movie marathon tonight.”

“Do you think he meant that text for you?” Percy asked, it wouldn’t have been the first time that her dad sent Annabeth the wrong message. “Maybe it was for your step mom.”

All she did was shake her head.

Almost a half hour later Chiron re-entered the room, a stack of papers in his hands.

“I got an email from USAG, they want to do an actual sit down interview with you two this week. Are you both alright with that? It will be for a short vignette that will run on TV for Nationals.”

This was one of Percy’s favorite things about his coach. He never agreed to anything without consulting Percy and Annabeth first. Chiron would never force or pressure them into anything they were uncomfortable with or didn’t want to do.

Unfortunately in gymnastics, that wasn’t always the case.

Annabeth looked at Percy, then asked, “It’ll be more organized than the American Cup interview, right? We’ll know the questions beforehand?”

Chiron agreed, and then added, “There’s something else, they are really impressed that you two aren’t homeschooled and they’d like to get some footage of the two of you during the school day and at practice to include in the vignette.”

Percy’s eyes widened. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, school as much as he hated to admit it, was the only normalcy he had in life. He loved gymnastics and that would never stop, but (he would never admit this to Annabeth or his mom) Percy liked having a place where he could decompress and didn’t have to think about gymnastics. Most of the other students at Goode Academy either didn’t know he was a gymnast or didn’t care, and the cameras could change all of that.

They discussed in depth what this could mean for them going forward and the possible consequences, good and bad.

Ultimately, they decided that the cameras could film, but only for a small part of the day. They decided that even seeing a small aspect of their lives could have a positive influence on younger gymnasts and it would be even better for kids to see that homeschooling doesn’t have to be the only option if you wanted to go elite.

“So, I’ll have them set that up for Friday morning, and the interviews at the gym in the afternoon,” Chiron was helping detach them from the equipment, Percy legs were already starting to feel a bit better.

Percy and Annabeth switched machines and by the time they were both done with the second round, Sally was texting Percy that she was at Olympia ready to pick him and Annabeth up.

On the way out of the gym, Percy stopped dead in his tracks, Annabeth so close on his heels that she ran into him.

Percy heard two familiar voices talking and laughing with each other. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Luckily, Annabeth put it into words for him.

“Is that Mr. Blofis… talking to your mom?” 

Percy peaked around the wall, where in fact Sally was talking to Mr. Blofis.

From where they were at, Percy and Annabeth could hear everything that was being said, but they couldn’t be seen or heard from anyone in the waiting room.

“How do you think he knew she’d be here?” He asked on the verge of freaking out.

“Do you really think he followed your mom to Olympia so he could to talk about your grades? I’m sure there’s some rational explanation for this that doesn’t involve school.” 

Percy had been waiting for the first moment in his life that Annabeth would be wrong about something, however, this was not the scenario he had anticipated.

Percy could hear Mr. Blofis saying, “He’s doing alright in class, he’s on grade level, but Percy does have the potential to do much better.”

Sally was smiling her hand resting on Mr. Blofis’ arm. “I appreciate that, it’s nice to hear some good news from one of his teachers. I’m so glad I ran into you tonight. I’ll be looking forward to this weekend.

Blofis smiled back, “So will I.”

Annabeth suppressed a laugh, “Is your mom going on a date with our English teacher?”

That was all the eavesdropping Percy could take, he grabbed Annabeth by the hand and burst into the waiting room.

Everyone was gone, rec classes had ended a half hour ago, and the only people left in the waiting room were Sally, Mr. Blofis, and a young girl in a bright pink leotard, blonde hair high in a ponytail, her attention fixated on the phone in her hand.

“Mr. Blofis, what are you doing here?” Percy’s voice was too loud to sound natural, it echoed in the empty space.

Blofis blinked a few times, clearly startled.

He gained his composure and said, “Hello Percy, Annabeth. My niece takes classes here and my sister couldn’t pick her up tonight, so I volunteered. I will admit, I didn’t realize it was the same gym as the new American Cup Champions. Congratulations, by the way, I didn’t want to embarrass you in class this afternoon, especially after the announcement made by Principal Brown.”

Sally laughed, “Your principal made an announcement?”

“Nope, “Annabeth said cheerfully.

“He did it at lunch,” Percy said in the exact same tone.

“In the cafeteria,”

“With a microphone,”

“In front of the entire sophomore class,” Annabeth finished.

Sally was use to Percy and Annabeth finishing each other’s thoughts and sentences. Mr. Blofis was not, he had an amused look on his face as he watched the two go back and forth.

“Well your coach told me he has a couple extra of those banners that he wants to give to the school, so that might make everyone forget about lunch.”

Percy and Annabeth were horrified.

“Please tell me you aren’t serious,” Percy begged.

“Of course not” Mr. Blofis said with a laugh.

The four talked for another few minutes until Sally remembered that the main reason she was there, was to take pictures of the two gymnasts in front of their banners. Mr. Blofis politely offered to take a picture of the three of them as well. And then Sally decided Chiron needed to be in a picture too. And by the time the photo shoot was over, Percy and Annabeth were dead tired.

They said their goodbyes with only a small amount of awkwardness, considering the elephant in the room.

Percy knew Mr. Blofis had asked out his mom, and he had to of known that Percy knew, but apparently no one was going to talk about it.

Yet. He’d ask about it on the ride home. That way Sally couldn’t avoid the topic.

Sally had barely turned the key in the ignition when Annabeth’s head lolled to the side and came to a rest in Percy’s lap, and it wasn’t too long after that Percy was following Annabeth’s example.

The date Mr. Blofis and his mom had, completely escaping his mind.

The ride home was short, it seemed as though only seconds had passed when Sally was nudging Annabeth awake.

Percy walked her to the door, “Call me once you find out what your dad was talking about, I’ll sacrifice my sleep for you, so we can reschedule that movie marathon.”

She nodded, “Thanks, I’ll see you at school, tomorrow.”

But as it turned out, he would see Annabeth again much sooner than that.

*******

The door to Percy’s room opened and shut loudly. Scaring him upright out of bed.

Bleary eyed, he look to his left at the clock on his bedside table that read 12:42.

Annabeth stood at the end of his bed, her face grave. Her next words, Percy never would have expected, not in a million years.

She spoke slowly, her voice showing no emotion. “My dad got a new job in San Francisco, we’ll be gone by the end of the week.”

Percy’s heart fell into his stomach. He couldn’t form words. The only thing his head could come up with was the thought:

_This can’t be real._

That thought was thrown out the window when she pushed him to the side of his bed and crawled in with him. Percy knew there was no possible way he was dreaming when she pressed her body up against his and rested her head on his chest.

Percy’s heart started racing. Annabeth was his best friend, his first love, she had been since they met when they were in pre-school. She couldn’t just be leaving.

“We’ll figure something out, I promise.” He told her, determination in his voice

Percy wasn’t about to let her go without a fight.


	4. Annabeth

They skipped school the next day.

It was the first time Annabeth had ever done so without having a meet as an excuse.

She sat on the sofa in Percy’s living room staring directly at the rising sun. She found that looking at something bright helped keep her from crying.

All she could think about was her father’s voice.

Casually mentioning that his new job would start next week in San Francisco, as if he was saying they were moving across the street. Not across the country.

Like this news wouldn’t send her life into a tailspin.

Her whole life was in New York City, she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. The thought of leaving Percy and Sally wracked her with panic. They were the only aspects of her life Annabeth knew she would never be able to replace.

When they moved, she’d have to find a new gym, get a new coach, start a new school, and make sure her grades don’t drop because the curriculum in New York had to be different from the curriculum in California.

Annabeth was about to start her entire life over.

_What if her new coach tried to change her routines?_

The thought terrified her, Annabeth took pride in making her routines artistic and unique. She had certain skills that didn’t add too much difficulty to her score, but Annabeth included them anyways to set herself a part from other gymnasts. If she saw one more wolf turn or side somi Annabeth might actually lose her mind.

That was one thing she was jealous of her mom about, the difficulty during her age of gymnastics was nowhere close to gymnasts now. It was more artistry than anything else, where being unique and different was encouraged instead of today’s Code of Points where sometimes ingenuity went ignored and unappreciated.

A plan hit her like a train. She smirked.

“I know that face,” Percy walked out of the kitchen with a plate of scrambled eggs and two mugs of coffee. “You’re scheming. I told you, we’d figure out a way to keep you in New York.”

She loved and simultaneously hated how well Percy knew her. It made it almost impossible to hide anything from him. She didn’t want to get his hopes up, just to ruin everything later when this didn’t work.

She took a plate and forced herself to eat, “It’s not a scheme, just a shot in the dark.”

Percy rolled his hands in a ‘Go on’ gesture.

‘I’m going to talk to my mother.”

“No.” His response was immediate. “You can’t do that to yourself.”

It was the lesser of two evils. Annabeth knew she’d have a hard time explaining that to Percy. Everything was so black and white to him. All he knew was that Athena never made time for Annabeth, and when she did, it wasn’t a pleasant encounter. Her mother was uptight at best and downright cruel at her worst.

The last meet her mother attended as a spectator at the Junior Olympics was a disaster. She knew Percy would never forgive Athena. It was a day she didn’t like to think about, Annabeth had fallen on balance beam and had come in 2nd place in the All Around. Athena had let her know in her own special way that 2nd place for her daughter was not acceptable. Even though it was practically unheard of to have a fall and still come in second, usually that removed a person from medal contention entirely, but reasoning like that was completely past her mother.

Athena had hurled verbal abuses at her for hours, destroying Annabeth’s confidence in herself, it had taken her months to recover. Percy had helped build her back up, he had watched her tank routine after routine, he sat with her as she cried, he told her how she had the potential to be one of the best women gymnasts ever. He tried his best to remove the negative image that Athena had placed in Annabeth’s mind.

But one thought kept circling around and around.

_If her own mother didn’t believe in her, why should she?_

It was Percy and Sally who had suggested a sports psychologist. That changed her life. It had helped her get back to a competitive elite level. She had started seeing her therapist a few times a week and then as her confidence grew she was able to push back her appointments until she was going once every few weeks.

Luckily, her therapist was a friend of Chiron’s and would make frequent trips to Olympia to talk with Annabeth and Percy if they ever needed an additional session. Sometimes they even skyped or face timed.

“You could always stay here with us, they can’t just rip you away from everything you’ve worked for.” Percy was on the verge of pleading.

Annabeth turned away before Percy could see the tears in her eyes, she couldn’t bear to tell him how wrong he was.

***

Later that afternoon, Annabeth found herself, alone, in front of a bright red door. Her hand poised to knock. Her mother’s Manhattan row house towered above her menacingly.

_I wish Percy was here._

But the hatred between the two was mutual. Bringing him may ruin any chance she had at staying in New York.

Annabeth waited for what felt like hours. _Don’t be a chicken shit. Just do it._

She knocked.

Athena Parthenos answered, looking prim and proper in a floor length white dress. For once, her mother couldn’t hide her emotions. The last person she thought would be on the other side of the door was her daughter.

“How long have you known?” Annabeth said in lieu of a greeting.

Athena sighed, and Annabeth knew in that instant exactly what her mother was thinking.

“I’m not being dramatic.” Her parents could literally be ruining her life. How could they not see this?

“Well, nice to see you too Annabeth.” A brief pause, “I believe Congratulations are in order.”

Annabeth almost asked “For what?” but then remembered. Had the American Cup only been two days ago? It felt like years in the past.

Annabeth repeated her original question. And was given another sigh in response.

“At least come in and we can talk.”

“I have practice soon, I can’t stay long.” It wasn’t necessarily true, but not a lie either.

In response Athena opened the door farther, and gestured her inside.

_Breathe._

The house was immaculate, marble floors, ornate furniture, high ceilings- the works.

Her mother sat on the couch, leaving Annabeth the settee. “We knew it was a possibility for a couple of months. Fredrick had been in the running for this position for a while, but I didn’t think he would actually _get_ it.”

Annabeth stared at her mother open mouthed.

_Do you have faith in anyone?_

Annabeth almost said it out loud. But that wasn’t going to help her get what she wanted. She let her mother continue.

“But your father told me the morning before he told you.”

Annabeth’s voice was quiet and sincere. “Did either of you think how this would affect me? A move right now could set me back weeks, if not months. I can’t afford that a year before the Olympics.”

“Despite what you may think of me,” Athena’s voice was creeping closer to her business tone, “I have been worrying about your well-being.”

Annabeth’s voice caught in her throat. Could her mother be willing to agree with her so easily?

“However, I can’t say that I’m not interested to see you try out a new gym with a more competent coach and without the Jackson distraction.”

The world went red, Annabeth could barely form words for a second. “If you actually think that, then you aren’t qualified to be the National Team Coordinator.”

She knew insulting her mother wouldn’t help but, Annabeth couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t just stand by and let Athena insult Chiron and Percy. Especially when it was undeserved. If Athena couldn’t see how talented they both were then she really shouldn’t be in charge of talent development for the entire United States.

“Chiron is the best coach that I could ever have and probably one of the best in the country, and Percy makes me a better gymnast every day, I wouldn’t be I wouldn’t be the athlete I am, without either of them.”

“You need discipline. Strict discipline, that’s the only way you can make it to the Olympics. And that’s the only point of doing this.”

“Loving the sport isn’t enough?”

Her mother’s voice was flat. “No.”

Time for a Hail Mary then. “If I can’t stay in New York, I’m quitting gymnastics.”

Her mother’s eyes narrowed, abruptly she stood up and walked away. Annabeth heard her voice trail off as she spoke.

“Then the sport will be losing one of the greatest natural talents we have ever seen.”

Annabeth waited, but her mother said nothing else and did not return to living room. She took that as her cue to leave, Athena had called her bluff and probably seen right through her.

She couldn’t just quit, not after coming this far. 

As she got to the sidewalk, Athena’s voice called after her from the top of the stoop. “It’s not my decision, per the custody agreement, you would have to get your father’s permission first, if he agrees, then I’ll consider it.”

***

Annabeth got back to the Jackson’s just in time for lunch, grilled chicken with brown rice and veggies. It was almost impossible to pass up all the street food on the way back to the apartment. But it was healthy food for now, even if it did take a willpower stronger than diamonds to walk past some of the food stands.

Percy handed her a class of hot water with lemon, supposedly it was good for their metabolism. He sat on the couch already in his leotard with a shirt thrown over and a pair of basketball shorts.

“I figured, we can get to the gym early today, there’s not really a point of waiting till school is over.”

Annabeth agreed and added, “Plus that’ll give me some time tonight to talk to my dad.”

She could tell that Percy was handling their potential separation by completely ignoring the possibility. He was keeping up a surprisingly positive attitude, for his sake or Annabeth’s, she wasn’t sure.

“I think today is the day,” he said.

Annabeth just stared, she knew what he was talking about, Percy had been obsessing about this for months now.

“You said that last week,” she teased him, leave it to Percy to always be able to make her smile.

“But I can feel it, I’ve been visualizing it all morning and I think I can catch it. I want it named after me, I think I can get it in time for World’s.”

A gymnast who performed a new skill, that no one else had ever done before could get it named after them, as long as they successfully performed it at World’s (or the Olympics). Percy was hoping he could finally catch a laid out double twisting double back flip over the high bar. She knew he could do it, but she wasn’t sure if he was totally ready yet.

Sally walked into the living room, a pencil behind her ear. She was in the middle of revisions for her latest book, but she had her car keys in hand, “Is he ever going to stop talking about that release move?”

Annabeth laughed, “I’m sure he’ll stop whenever he pulls his shoulder out of the socket.”

“I hear your negativity and I’m choosing to ignore you.”

Percy was all about positive self-talk, he believed that only good things came from good thoughts. It took him a long time to get to that place, but Percy always said he noticed a huge difference in his gymnastics when he stopped being self-deprecating. Annabeth was more realistic, she knew what she could do, it was about hard work, not luck. To her saying “I can do this!” to herself wouldn’t change that.

Sally pulled them out of their conversation, “If you’re fast enough, I can give you two a ride to the gym on my way to my publisher.”

***

It wasn’t often that they got to Olympia before two in the afternoon, it was oddly quiet as Annabeth and Percy went through their warm up stretches.

Chiron’s voice actually echoed throughout the gym as he called out corrections and encouragements.

“What do you all want to start with today?” Chiron asked.

Percy’s response was immediate, Annabeth already knew what it would be. They answered at the same time.

“Bars.”

Chiron nodded, “Let’s get to work,”

And they were off. Starting with a quick warm up, seeing who could do as many perfect cast handstands in a minute on bars. Missed handstands (anything less than a 90 degree angle) counted as the most deductions for gymnasts on bars. And it was Chiron’s biggest pet peeve. They had dozens of practices where Percy and Annabeth did nothing on bars but handstand drills until Annabeth thought she’d throw up. However, looking back on it, Chiron’s madness did help, they almost never missed a handstand in competition now.

After warming up on bars, Chiron had new tasks for them, they had to complete 5 release moves in a row before they could move on to a different release move, they would have to finish their entire set of releases from their routine before moving on to pirouettes and then finally if they wanted, any new moves. It was a routine that probably took up the first 45 minutes of practice.

Annabeth always completed her releases first, that was the benefit of only having three release moves in her routine instead of six like Percy.

While Percy was finishing up, Chiron had come to help Annabeth with a move she wanted to add to her routine soon, a hopping full pirouette out of a giant swing. That move alone could add a couple tenths to her difficulty score, especially if she added it in connection with something else. Chiron had her working pirouette drills on the floor before she took them on to the bar.

Her first attempt at the actual move, she gained as much momentum she could from her giant swing, when she got close to her handstand position, she let go, did a full spin and completely missed catching the bar.

Annabeth fell head first, straight down into the foam pit.

When she emerged, (getting out of a foam pit is the closest to escaping quicksand Annabeth ever thought she’d experience), Percy was on the ground, underneath the high bar, laughing.

Chiron picked up a piece of chalk and hurled it at his head. Annabeth heard him yelp in surprise and then go back to laughing.

“Alright, get back up there and try it again, I’m going to count so you can see where you need to be, make sure you spot where the bar is at, keep your eyes open,”

Then went over it a few times, Annabeth finally caught it, then Chiron made her do it a dozen more times just to make sure she had it down. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with it yet, so she knew she’d have to work on it longer before adding it to her routine. Hopefully, she’d have it for Nationals.

Next, Chiron had her work on independent tumbling drills while he went to help Percy with catching his new skill. She was conscience of what Percy was doing even though she was on the opposite side of the gym, Annabeth knew how close he was to making this skill, and she wanted to be able to cheer him on.

Percy wound up, getting as much force behind his giant swings as he could muster, he let go, flipped twice and twisted twice and his hands slapped the bar, but he couldn’t get his fingers around it. He fell into the foam pit below.

He jumped up, excited, “That was the closest I’ve ever been.”

Chiron nodded, “Then do it again, your air awareness is getting much better. You just need to have the confidence to grab the bar. Annabeth, will you record this next one?”

Annabeth agreed, they recorded themselves like this a lot, especially if it was a skill they were having difficulty with. It always helped to see what you were doing wrong. 

She grabbed her phone from her locker, as Percy wound up, she made her way over to the bars section of the gym,

“You got this Perce.”

He let go of the bar, spinning and flipping so quick that Annabeth had a hard time keeping track of where he was at, all she really noticed was the way his hands clenched around the bar. Before she could even cheer him on Chiron was already shouting and jumping up and down. Annabeth was following suit.

Percy let go of the high bar, he landed on a mat in the foam pit. He was screaming, “Yes! I did it! Over and over. He jumped up on the regular floor and started running through the empty gym out of pure excitement.

Annabeth recording on her phone the entire time.

“Do it again, and this time, try not so close to your face.”

Percy tried his new skill ten more times, he caught half of them.

“It’s a start,” Chiron told him. He then had Percy transition over to floor with Annabeth, there they worked on tumbling passes together.

Annabeth had been trying to think of a tumbling pass she could try that would add difficulty to her routine and be unique at the same time.

“Do you think it would be possible to fit a 2.5 twist to a double back on the floor?” She asked both of them.

Percy thought about it. “You’d be cutting it kinda close, but I don’t see why not.”

Chiron smiled at her, “I only know one way to find out for sure.”

Her next turn, Annabeth tried it on a straight floor, just to see if it was physically possible for her to complete. After a few more turns, she tried it on the regulation sized floor. Annabeth asked Percy to record it, she wanted to see exactly how much space she’d have to work with.

Her first turn, she landed out of bounds. Chiron gave her one correction, “your double back needs to go up, not backwards.”

She tried it again, this time she landed in bounds, but the step backwards on the landing was out.

“Try it a few more times, I think once you get more control of it, it’ll be easier to keep it in. It might even help to do a jump out of it.”

“A front layout would be cool,” Percy added. Chiron agreed and had Annabeth start drilling that on the floor while Percy worked on his own tumbling passes. His 3.5 twist is his most inconsistent piece of gymnastics, so Chiron had him working on drills for that.

Before they knew it, Chiron was having them move to vault.


	5. Percy

Practice today for Percy was one of his most productive ever. He was trying to have a great day, it was just hard with the thought of Annabeth moving across the world looming. He even almost forgot earlier when he had landed his release move. Then it had all come screaming back.

Normally, they didn’t try to work on upgrades this much in a single practice. Usually, they ran drills a lot more instead of just trying to fling themselves into their new skills, but given the circumstances, Percy figured it was the only way for the three of them not to lose their minds.

They began warming up vault, starting with basic skills and increasing the difficulty. During a quick water break a thought came to Percy suddenly.

“Chiron, is it too soon to start working a Dragelescu? If I want an international vault medal, I won’t win with anything less.”

Annabeth was nodding, “I feel the same with my Cheng.”

Chiron looked at the both of them, “I agree, but, I don’t want to push you too far, too soon. We’ll work some drills and maybe try throwing those vaults towards the end of the week. I’ll set up the mats, and you two should take a quick break, grab a snack and some water and then we’ll start.”

***

After practice was a solemn affair, they went through their recovery steps without saying a word, in their 10 years of training together, Percy didn’t think that had ever happened.

Usually they both complained during their ice baths or teased each other about how bad they smelled or talked about the crazy gym moms but they had been completely silent. 

Chiron spent that time looking back and forth between them. “One of you has to say something, this is so awkward its making _me_ uncomfortable.”

Annabeth choked out something between a laugh and a sob, “But what if my dad won’t let me stay? That’s all I can think about.”

“You can’t dwell on the ‘what ifs’ it’ll drive you crazy. Focus on the here and now, then we’ll tackle that problem when we get to it.”

Percy couldn’t bring himself to say anything, he was determined to have a positive outlook on the situation, but it was hard to maintain when Annabeth was looking so depressed. 

The ride home on the subway felt longer than normal, Percy kept trying to come up with something to say but it all felt stupid and unnatural.

Finally, he decided on, “What if you emancipate yourself? I researched it a bit and I think we could manage it.” He explained the process to her and described what they would have to do for Annabeth to become her own legal guardian.

Annabeth dropped her head into her hands, he saw her shoulders start to shake.

_Great, I made her cry._ Percy thought.

But when she lifted her head, he realized Annabeth was laughing. The sound getting louder and louder in the otherwise quiet subway train.

I’m serious!” He said indignantly. 

“I know. That’s the funny part, if you put that kind of effort into your school work, your GPA would be better than mine.”

He bumped her shoulder with his, “Everything is going to be fine, we’ll make sure of it.”

“And what if you’re wrong, what happens to us when I move across the country?”

“We’ll FaceTime each other every day, all day. Even during school and practice. It’ll be like you’re still here. We don’t even have to be talking the entire time, but we’ll be there if the other needs something.”

“Our phones will constantly be dying.”

“We’ll buy a bunch of those portable chargers,”

Annabeth smiled for what could have been the first time that day, “What am I going to do without you?”

“Didn’t you just hear the plan? You won’t be without me. I promise.”

“Would you visit?” She asked it quietly, as if she was nervous about the answer.

Percy almost laughed, he would travel across the world to get to Annabeth; he would jump into an active volcano for her. He’d swim across the Pacific Ocean to get to her. He could spend days thinking of horrible scenarios that he would put himself through for Annabeth.

But all he said was, “Of course, I’d visit, I’d stay so long you would be begging for me to leave.”


	6. Annabeth

Annabeth’s first day at her new gym did not go over well.

She was tired from all the crying, screaming, and fighting she had done the night before.

Now she was just numb.

Practice was at 8 in the morning, Annabeth’s flight landed two hours prior, a fact that her new coaches chose to ignore. She was tired and jetlagged and didn’t feel like practicing.

_Great, all the fun has been sucked out of gymnastics._

She stood outside the new gym. It wasn’t anything like Olympia.

Where Olympia was charming and inviting, Jupiter Gymnastics had nothing special about it, inside could have been a dentist’s office for all Annabeth could tell.

A white nondescript building with reflective windows so no one could see in. That was it.

Annabeth couldn’t envision herself being excited to get to practice. Couldn’t see herself throwing open the door and racing to hurry up and stretch so she could get started on the real stuff. She couldn’t see herself laughing after she missed a landing on beam or hit a rough spot that flung her off the bars into the foam pit.

This place would never be home for her, not like Olympia was.

_Breathe_

She pulled her phone out of her pocket. Percy’s face was already on the screen.

“Just go in, Wise Girl, get it over with.”

From behind Percy came a quiet and sheepish: “Hi Annabeth,” Grover’s voice threatened to bring a new round of tears to her eyes.

Then she heard a sharp, “Mr. Jackson!” and Annabeth was quickly thrown into Percy’s backpack.

Alone, for the time being, Annabeth began to contemplate running away and joining the Circus, it was in the midst of these thoughts that the door to the gym opened. Thalia and Jason Grace leaned coolly against the door frame.

“We had a bet on how long it’d take you to come in, but then we figured if no one forced you, you’d be out here forever.” Thalia was smiling, which did help to improve Annabeth’s mood.

Which only lasted until she met Hera and Jupiter. The owners and head coaches of Jupiter Gymnastics.

They had none of the qualities that she loved about Chiron and ALL of the qualities she hated about her mother.

She wasn’t in the gym for 5 seconds before they started yelling and ordering them around. They had strict rules and routines that they were expected to obey. Nothing about this gym was laid back or easy going. This was a dictatorship.

“Don’t think we’ll take it easy on you because you just got here today Annabeth, that won’t be helping you get into Olympic shape.”

“An easy practice won’t hurt me either.” She wanted to smack herself as soon as it was out of her mouth. It was something Percy would have said, he was always the impertinent one, not her. 

Jason and Thalia’s eyes almost exploded out of their skulls. It was clear that talking out of place was not encouraged at Jupiter Gymnastics.

Plus, it was a bit of a low blow.

Jupiter Gymnastics used to be one of the best in the country. Back in their heyday, they had coached multiple Olympic Champions and even a Gold medal All Arounder at the 1992 Olympics in Atlanta.

But, ever since Jason and Thalia’s mother died, and Jupiter remarried Hera, it’s all been downhill.

They’ve been cranking out more injuries than medals lately.

Before Annabeth could apologize, Hera was smiling cruelly, “You just earned extra conditioning this week. For all three of you.”

*******

When she got to the new house that night, Annabeth collapsed into bed, her body aching. It was 3 hours later in New York, but she called Percy anyways.

“Sorry about hanging up at practice, one of the several thousand rules is all phone must be turned off in the gym.”

Percy rubbed at his eyes, his voice was a low rasp. “They made you practice?”

“I won’t be Olympic ready next year if I rested instead of practicing today.”

She could almost hear him roll his eyes. Annabeth told him about her day. The longer she talked the more awake Percy became until he was yelling in her defense.

At one point, Sally came in looking frantic, a robe half thrown on over her pajamas.

“What’s wrong?”

All Percy did was point his phone screen at his mom.

Once she realized her son wasn’t being murdered, her tone softened, “How’s California? We miss you back here.”

Annabeth almost broke down sobbing, that was more than Athena had said to her since she had arrived. They talked for a few minutes before Sally headed back to bed.

Something dawned on Annabeth then. “Oh my gods, its Sunday did she go on that date with Mr. Blofis?”

Percy’s jaw clenched. Annabeth took that as a ‘Yes.’

“So, tell me about it! Do you know how it went?” 

Percy sighed, “He was a perfect gentlemen. He picked her up, shook my hand, pretended that he wasn’t my English teacher, and had her back before 11. She was so happy that it’s really hard to hate the guy.”

They talked until midnight Annabeth’s time, it was almost like before, when Annabeth was in a different neighborhood and not a different time zone.

“I don’t know how long I’ll last here,” Annabeth had said. “I feel so alienated. Training with the Graces isn’t so bad, but I don’t think I can get used to Jupiter and Hera.”

“What about Piper?” Percy asked, “how far is she from you?”

Annabeth was stunned into silence, in her impending and current doom, she had totally forgot that the other girl also lived in California.

“That California pollution must have really gotten to your head, Wise Girl.”

She rolled her eyes, as Percy continued, “It’s still only a temporary solution, well get you back here sooner or later.”

It wasn’t the first time Percy had made a comment like that today, she appreciated that he was still being so positive, but she didn’t want to get his hopes up. Being in California seemed kind of permanent.

Before going to bed, Annabeth sent a quick text to Piper asking her to call Annabeth in the morning.

Piper called her immediately.

Annabeth didn’t bother to ask why the other girl was up so late, instead, she explained all of the events of the past week leading up to now. Piper patiently listened and was indignant on her behalf.

“You can’t be in California and not train with me.” Piper said matter of factly, “I’ll have my dad send his private jet tomorrow morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading, I really appreciate it.
> 
> My goal, now that the semester has started, is to upload twice a month. Whether I meet that goal remains to be seen.


	7. Percy

Percy was slowly adjusting to life without Annabeth.

At first, it didn’t seem real. He was so used to having Annabeth by his side, that even over a few weeks’ time, the phantom pain of her presence was still there.

Every time he walked into English, he expected her to be in her seat, ready for class to start.

Seeing Annabeth’s empty desk felt like a punch to the gut.

It was worse at the gym, he had no one to train with anymore. Chiron was trying his best to keep Percy’s spirits up, but some days it just wasn’t enough.

Last week, Percy was working on upgrading his vault. It was a skill he had only thrown a few times previously. In the middle of his Dragelescu, a double front with a half twist, Percy’s mind and body had completely blanked.

He ended up belly-flopping onto the mats.

Chiron to his credit did laugh. But he wasn’t as enthusiastic as Annabeth would have been.

Focusing on a goal, made dealing with Annabeth’s absence a little easier. The upcoming Nationals meet was the only thing helping Percy keep his composure.

He needed to be the National Champion, winning would guarantee him a spot on the National Team, which would increase his chances of being chosen for the Worlds team and hopefully after that, the Olympics.

He had to make it to Athens next year. He wanted to win gold there. Percy wanted it with a desire that he wasn’t sure he could quantify with human words. 

Plus Annabeth would be disappointed if he let up on his training because of her.

So, if he had to practice alone, for the time being, he’d deal, because eventually, Annabeth would be back in New York, and all would be right in the world. Then they’d be able to forget that this whole mess happened in the first place.

Mr. Blofis started lightly tapping on Percy’s desk, trying to grab his attention. He should have been taking a test, but with Nationals so close and Annabeth so far away, it was hard to focus on anything else.

Just as Percy was bubbling in the last answer, the bell rang, dismissing them to their final class of the day.

Percy took this as the perfect opportunity to finally talk to his English teacher. He had been trying to avoid the man all week, to his mother’s growing dismay.

Once the final student had left the room, he walked up to Mr. Blofis’s desk where he was quickly organizing their tests and getting ready for his last class.

Percy cleared his throat, “So, Mr. Blofis, I’m going to be out all next week for a competition. Is it possible that I can pick up the assignments we’ll be doing then so I don’t fall behind.” Sally had told Percy to ask at the beginning of the week, so Blofis (Paul, she had called him!) would have time to gather the work for him. But Percy kept pushing it off, so here he was Friday afternoon, the day before he left for Florida.

Mr. Blofis opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a thick stack of papers, “I think this should work, all of these assignments will help you prepare for the final exam when you return. If you need any help at all feel free to email me.”

Percy nodded, when he had asked his other teachers today, they all looked at him with minor annoyance. Some even threatened to force Percy to take their final exam during the summer. Mr. Blofis was the only one who already had his assignments ready for him and was completely chill about it all.

“Good Luck at your competition, I’ll see you next week.”

Percy stammered out a 'thanks' before leaving, Grover had been waiting outside so they could walk to their history class together.

“Can you believe this?” Percy showed his friend the papers he had just received.

Grover was confused, “That Mr. Blofis is doing his job?”

Percy had to stop himself from getting too loud, “No, that they’ve been talking about me, he was the only teacher with my assignments ready, and he’s the only teacher currently dating my mom.”

“So what, they both care about you, it could be worse.”

“It’s just weird, Grover, I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to it.”

Grover rolled his eyes, exasperated, “If Annabeth was here, she’d make you see reason.”

The bell rang, and they rushed into class before Mr. Brunner noticed they were a few seconds late.

Time seemed to crawl by for the duration of the day. The 48 minute class period stretched for hours. Instead of listening to Brunner's lecture about the Spanish American War, Percy visualized his routines, himself stepping up to the first place podium, and finally seeing Annabeth in person.

He was so focused that he almost missed the dismissal bell until Grover was pulling at him and forcing Percy out of the door.

When he got to the gym later, Chiron didn’t even let him in the building, he cracked the door just enough for Chiron to fit his head through. He asked two questions like he was asking for a password.

“Are you packed for tomorrow? Did you get more pre-tape?”

Percy answered with a cheerful, “No.”

Their plane left at 10 in the morning, the way Percy saw it, he got to sleep in an hour later than normal, so he had tons of time to pack and grab all the necessities he would need for the next week.

Chiron rolled his eyes, “We’re doing a light workout today only, we’ll be done by 7 tonight so you can finish packing, I’m not letting you miss that plane…again.”

“That was one time!” Percy protested.

“It was twice,” Chiron, completely unenthused, was already turning his back and walking into the gym.

***

Percy didn’t think it was possible for any place on Earth to be hotter than New York City at the beginning of summer. That was until he went to Orlando in June.

The sweltering heat outside was a stark contrast to the frigid air conditioning of the Amway Center. 

Percy always arrived at the venue before the scheduled practice time, he liked to get the feel of the arena before he did anything. Annabeth always thought he was crazy, but there was something otherworldly about being in an empty arena that could otherwise fit 20,000 people, completely silent except for the sound of his own breathing.

Especially knowing that in a few days’ time, it was going to be loud and completely full of people. 

They had two full practice days in a separate gym, then podium training before the actual competition.

In one of the brief conversations he’d had with Annabeth recently, he knew they had one practice together.

He supposed it was better than nothing.

From off in the distance, he heard an ear-piercing whistle. His mom was waiting to say goodbye before he started practice for the day.

After taking in one more moment with the space that he would soon be deemed National Champion in, Percy headed to where his mom and Chiron were waiting.

Sally kissed him on the head, “If you need anything just text me, I’m going to head to the hotel and hopefully finish this latest edit of my book.”

As soon as she was out of the practice gym, Chiron started taping Percy’s ankle to get ready for the day. It was a spot that has been bothering him recently, from too many passes on floor, trying to perfect his 3.5 twist. That way soon, he could upgrade to a quad twist.

“Can I get another on my wrist? It was hurting a bit this morning too.”

Their last full practice had Percy’s entire body aching. That’s how you could tell it was a good workout, but the constant and consistent training was almost more than he could bear. He was sore and in pain most of the time. Even at school or just lying in bed, something on Percy’s body was hurting.

However, the torment he was putting his body through would be worth it as soon as he stepped out onto the competition floor.

Voices started coming from down the hallway that led out of the Practice gym, Percy and Chiron both turned to look, hoping to finally see Annabeth.

Instead, they saw Leo Valdez and Charles Beckendorf of Hephaestus Gymnastics enter the practice area.

“Why isn’t she here yet?” Percy asked.

Chiron sighed, “We were a full hour and a half early, Annabeth will get here eventually.”

As if on cue, Jupiter gymnastics entered the practice gym, in a single file line, with matching purple warm-up gear. Percy’s heart fell into his stomach. Annabeth followed behind the Graces, he could already tell something about her was off. Her eyes followed the floor at her feet, with hunched shoulders, as she slowly walked into the gym (something he had never seen Annabeth do).

Percy could tell the moment she saw him, her entire body changed, her posture lengthened and a huge smile broke out on her face.

He jumped up, completely ignored the pain in his ankle and ran to her in a sprint faster than his vault run.

Percy knew it would cause a scene, but they hadn’t seen each other in so long, he couldn’t help himself.

Annabeth dropped her duffle bag and ran, meeting him halfway. As they embraced, he picked her up and spun her wildly, her feet kicking back and forth. Percy felt her hands ball into fists on his back. The hug she returned was a death grip like he’d disappear as soon as she let go.

Her voice shook, “I missed you so much Seaweed Brain.”

Percy had imagined a thousand different ways of reuniting with Annabeth, he had come up with a thousand different things to say. At no point did he anticipate his reply being cut off by the loud booming voice of Jupiter instructing Annabeth to begin warming up.

Her entire body changed, her face and shoulders dropped as she begrudgingly walked over to the Graces who were beginning to stretch with military-esque precision. 

It didn’t take long for Percy to notice Jupiter and Chiron's coaching styles were polar opposites. There was no talking or joking around at Jupiter Gymnastics, no competition to see who could get lower in a split or who could hold a handstand the longest.

They weren’t even allowed to talk at the chalk buckets.

On days like these, the athletes were allowed to pick where they wanted to begin, these practices were some of Percy’s favorite because they reminded him of Friday Night Open Gym’s when he was a kid. Where gymnasts were everywhere and they got to hang out and practice together.

Except for Jupiter Gymnastics. Percy had never noticed before, but they avoided the rest of the crowds, they started where the smallest groups of people were at and moved to the other apparatuses accordingly, Jupiter separating and going off with Thalia and Annabeth, while Hera moved with Jason.

Percy went to high bar first, while Annabeth went to balance beam. He worked first on getting used to the new equipment, this bar was much more flexible than the ones at Olympia, so he had to make sure not to use too much force otherwise he’d fling himself into the rafters.

He worked on his release moves a few times and then put them together in his routine. Before he moved on to a different event he wanted to try his new skill at least once. He wasn’t planning on debuting it at this meet, he still needed lots of repetitions before he had the nerve to catch the skill consistently.

As he practiced, Percy was always present of Annabeth and what she was doing. He took note as she fell again and again off the balance beam. It wasn’t Annabeth’s best event by far, but in practice, she was normally a bit more solid than what was happening currently.

Chiron winced every time she hit the mat, Jupiter gave her no instructions or pieces of advice to help correct her mistakes. He just had her get back in line silently and wait for her next turn on the apparatus.

Percy could tell this was killing Chiron, Percy and Annabeth were like his kids, Chiron had been with them since the first started, he had ‘discovered’ them in preschool. He had watched them grow up and develop as gymnasts and people. Chiron had dedicated just as much time as Percy and Annabeth had in getting to this point. Now watching Annabeth drop skill after skill and have her new coach do nothing to help her was testing Chiron’s patience even more than Percy normally did.

At one point, Jupiter completely left the practice area, leaving Annabeth and Thalia to fend for themselves.

“I’ll be right back,” Chiron said, making a beeline for Annabeth on the other side of the gym. Percy followed him close on his heels.

“It’s killing me watching the both of you,” he said to Annabeth and Thalia. “You two need to work on your arm placement on beam. They have to be symmetrical at all times, that's what's throwing you two off. Remember your confidence too, if you doubt yourself its all over. Annabeth, remember what I've taught you." 

The girls nodded, and before they could say anything a throat cleared from behind Percy and Chiron, a deep condescending voice said, “Is there a reason you are talking to my gymnasts.”

Chiron replied in the exact same tone, Percy could tell he was trying hard to conceal his rage. “Well, I’ve known your gymnast for a full decade now, and she’s been making uncharacteristic mistakes, so I figured it would be appropriate to give her a bit of guidance since it didn’t appear as though you were.”

Percy had never seen Chiron like this before, he had skipped right past his normal passive-aggressive self and went to full-blown aggression. 

Jupiter’s eyes flashed with anger but he calmed himself before speaking.

“They are elite caliber gymnasts. Two of the best the country has to offer according to the American Cup standings, they should be able to figure out how to balance on a beam at this point.

He tried to stay quiet, Percy really did, but he couldn’t help but saying, “Then what’s the point of having a coach?”

Jupiter’s head cocked to the side, he looked at Percy in disgust, like a piece of roadkill had risen and crawled itself into the gym and started speaking to the man. Jupiter completely ignored him.

Annabeth met Percy’s eyes, despite their distance and time apart, the two of them were still able to read the other and know what they were thinking without speaking.

_What’s up with Chiron? Annabeth asked._

Percy shrugged, their coach had been relatively normal up until this point. Annabeth nodded, she understood perfectly.

_Meet at vault later? Percy asked._

Annabeth smiled in agreement.

Jupiter’s attention was still pointed at Chiron, “Stay away from my gymnasts.” It was almost a growl.

Their minor argument escalated much quicker than Percy would’ve thought. It wasn’t anything too serious, or so Percy had thought.

Thalia was looking back and forth between the two men like it was a tennis match.

Next to her, Annabeth looked like a deer caught in headlights. She was clearly conflicted over the love and loyalty she had for Chiron and the worry over being reprimanded by Jupiter for the few dozen rules she would break by jumping to Chiron’s defense.

So, she stood next to Thalia, her mouth opening and closing as if she had something to say but couldn’t force the words out.

Thalia held Annabeth’s hand tight. Percy was torn between feeling thankful Annabeth had someone to support her and the jealousy he felt that he was no longer that person in her life.

Jupiter turned his attention to his gymnasts. He barked out his orders, “Get ready for bars. You have three minutes to get water and grip up.” His tone garnered no disagreement.

Annabeth grabbed her duffle bag, as she began to walk towards the uneven bars on the other side of the gym, she stopped as if compelled and hugged Chiron tightly. She whispered in his ear something that Percy couldn’t hear.

Chiron smiled and kissed Annabeth on the top of her head.

It was then that Percy realized, he had been so preoccupied with himself, he hadn’t noticed until now how badly Annabeth’s separation was affecting Chiron too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has read so far! I'm having a lot of fun writing this and I hope you are enjoying this story as much as I am. I'm anticipating having a bit more time to write at this point so hopefully, the next update will be up before a full month has passed. Thanks again!


	8. Chiron

**Chiron**

_Why did it have to be Jupiter?_

Athena could have moved Annabeth anywhere in the world and it had to be Jupiter Gymnastics.

Chiron knew the other man harbored a twenty yearlong grudge after their own Olympic Games.

The Men’s team hadn’t medaled in the Team competition, so the only chance for both Jupiter and Chiron to medal was during the All-Around or Event Finals part of the competition. Chiron walked away with two Olympic golds, one in the All-Around and the other on High Bar, he also won two additional silver medals on Floor and High Bar. Jupiter won bronze in the All-Around and gold on vault.

Now it seemed as though Jupiter was taking his bitterness out on another of his gymnasts.

This time was different though.

Before Annabeth and Percy had ever stepped foot inside Chiron’s gym. Jupiter had stolen Luke from Olympia, after seeing him at a Junior Elite meet, injured him, and sent back the remains of what could have been an excellent gymnast.

Luke was always Chiron’s biggest what if.

Chiron wouldn’t know how he’d handle it if the same fate was passed down to Annabeth. Luke was only at Olympia for a year, they had a good relationship, but he loved Annabeth like a daughter.

He had watched her transform from a talkative, know-it-all five-year-old to an awkward adolescent to a funny and intelligent young woman. Chiron knew the same way that the sky was blue and water was wet, that Annabeth was meant for greatness. He wouldn’t let anyone take that away from her.

Watching from afar during practice was downright painful, Annabeth was nowhere near her normal confidence levels, and it wouldn’t take someone close to her to notice. So, he was praying to any deities listening, that both Annabeth and Percy would be able to put all this drama to the side during the meet, so they could perform normally and take home the National Titles.

Even the smallest distraction could lead to ruination.

Luckily practices had gone well, for the most part. Percy had made the upgrades he wanted and was as prepared as he was going to get. It appeared that Annabeth hadn’t regressed at all, but she certainly hadn’t made any of the upgrades that she wanted. The American Cup results were close, and he was hoping that she’d be able to pull it off this weekend too, even though he knew her competitors have been working tirelessly to try and take her first place spot.

Podium training today was the official practice session before the start of the competition. It was a time for the gymnasts to get comfortable with the equipment and space they’d be competing in tomorrow.

Chiron spent the better part of podium training giving Annabeth nonverbal notes and encouragement from afar. Luckily Jupiter wasn’t real perceptive and by the end of the women’s training, she seemed to walk taller. He was happy to see that she had finally gotten comfortable with the hopping pirouettes on bars enough to incorporate the skill into her routine. The extra tenths in difficulty would definitely help her this weekend.

Beam was going to be a problem though. That was the real worry that had settled itself deep in Chiron’s gut. These past few months had really taken a toll on the plan that the two of them had created to improve Annabeth’s difficulty and execution scores.

“She looked pretty solid,” Percy said next to him.

Chiron sighed. “It’s going to be close. Tenths maybe even hundredths of a point.”

As the men were finally allowed on the equipment, Chiron realized they were getting too distracted.

That could be their downfall this weekend.

Percy was in the middle of waiting for his turn on the high bar and all the two of them could think about was Annabeth chances.

He put his hand on Percy’s shoulder, “Look, I’m worried about her too, but we have to focus on you now ok, were going to pretend this is the American Cup and everything is as it has been for the past decade.”

As Percy stepped up to the bar he nodded, “You’re right, I have to focus better.”

Chiron snorted, “if only your teachers could hear you like this.”

“At least 3 would have an immediate heart attack from the shock of it all.” They laughed together as Chiron picked Percy up by the waist and lifted him to the high bar.

He went through a quick warm-up, performing giant swings, pirouettes, and then his release moves. Chiron providing encouragement and critiques all the while.

“Want to try the new one?”

Percy knew better than to answer. He had to keep up his breathing, and responding would be a waste of strength. Instead, he wound up faster on his giant swings.

Chiron stepped back to spot his gymnast just in case he didn’t make it over the bar.

Which is exactly what happened.

During the second twist, Percy remained stationary in the air, instead of pushing backward. He landed on his back on the high bar which catapulted Percy backward and plummeting rapidly to the ground, headfirst.

Luckily Chiron was able to catch him before he broke his neck.

Chiron’s knees buckled under Percy’s weight. They both collapsed to the ground.

Sudden gasps erupted from the surrounding gymnasts and coaches. Many rushed to the two of them to check and make sure they didn’t require medical attention. There were even a couple of television cameras who probably caught the entire incident.

 _Can’t wait to see that on TV later_ , Chiron thought.

Between deep breaths, Percy said, “Damn, you haven’t made a catch like that since I was a kid.”

“I’m getting too old for this, so next time you try to break your neck. Just…don't.”

Still panting, Percy replied. “Noted. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

Gleeson Hedge reached down and helped Chiron up. Hedge had a huge smile on his face as he spoke to Percy. “Have you caught that yet? Cause when you do, it’s going to be _Awesome._ ”

Percy jumped up and returned Hedge’s smile, he was speaking quickly the way he did when he was excited about something.

Chiron couldn’t make out the words Percy was saying, his heart was beating too loud. Chiron felt numb all over in anxiety.

That could have gone really really bad.

Gymnastics was a dangerous sport. Athletes only made it look easy, one misstep could cause serious life-altering injuries. Had Chiron not been paying as close attention, Percy could have been severely injured.

Chiron thanked the gods they dodged that bullet.

Luckily, Percy was not phased in the slightest, he probably didn’t notice how close he was to a potential spinal injury. Chiron however, didn’t think it would matter, Percy had always been fearless, he took every challenge gymnastics threw at him head-on. He never backed down once he set his mind to something.

It was Chiron’s favorite and least favorite thing about him.

So, Chiron was not surprised in the slightest, when Percy said, “I wanna go for it again.”

He agreed reluctantly, the day before Nationals began would not be a great time to dislocate a shoulder, but Chiron knew Percy had to do it again for his own peace of mind and to remove any mental block that may try and take root inside Percy’s head.

“Fine, but this time, you need to push yourself back more, you weren’t even close to making it over the bar.”

Percy nodded. He tried his double-twisting double backflip three more times and caught it every single time.

That helped Chiron breathe a bit easier.

They moved throughout the other rotations together with no further incident, Percy was in great form. If he performed like this over the weekend, Chiron didn’t think any of the other gymnasts could top him. No other male gymnast came close to the amount of difficulty Percy had in his routines, so long as he didn’t make any major mistakes, Percy should have this one in the bag.

At least that’s what Chiron kept telling himself, because no matter that he hadn’t competed in years, Chiron could never overcome the worry and anxiety of competition days.

“Is it crazy that I want to compete my skill tomorrow?” Percy asked him as they left the Arena.

Chiron didn’t even look at him, he didn’t want to give him any sort of gratification, “Yes.”

“I caught it 3 times in a row.” He was indignant.

“I can tell you not to do it a thousand times, but I know that will only further motivate you. However, I don’t think you’re ready yet. Especially after your fall today.”

Percy huffed and crossed his arms. “It wasn’t _that_ bad.”

Chiron’s eyes almost exploded. His brain was about to liquefy and melt out of his ears. He stopped in his tracks. “Don’t play dumb with me kid, I know you better than that.”

Percy rolled his eyes, “I’m confident I can do.”

“You’re willing to risk throwing away the National Champion Title if you drop it?”

Percy stopped and reluctantly Chiron turned around to meet his gaze. Percy’s jaw was set and his shoulders squared.

“Yes.” His voice was firm and unwavering.

Whenever Percy got as serious as this, Chiron knew that there was no changing his mind.

“I don’t want to argue about this now. Let’s see how you feel tomorrow.”

Percy didn’t reply, he was frustrated, Chiron knew, but this was a risky move that Percy didn’t need to try at this point, he could win without the extra difficulty.

This was something he should save for Worlds later in the year. It’s what they had originally planned.

Plus, Chiron really wanted Percy to keep this new skill a secret. The National championship results would soon circulate around the world and gymnasts everywhere would know that Percy was the one to beat. For Worlds and potentially the Olympics.

“I’m just throwing this out there, if you compete this skill tomorrow, you run the risk of another gymnast learning it and getting your skill named after them, if by chance, they get to compete it first at World’s.” It was the only tactic that Chiron thought would work. He knew how badly Percy wanted this skill named the “Jackson.”

It’s what all the great gymnasts before them had done, and Percy wanted desperately to be in a league with them.

“American gymnasts have already seen me throw it, you saw the cameras at podium training. There’s a good chance that people will know about it by the end of the weekend. I’d rather them see me land it in competition than think _they_ have the chance to land my skill.”

They walked back to the hotel in silence. They were both too frustrated with the other to speak.

Plus, Chiron would rather save his breathe.

Percy would do as Percy wanted, and they would just have to deal with the repercussions together.


	9. Annabeth

Annabeth

Being this close to Percy and Chiron was almost worse than being on opposite ends of the country, all the close proximity did was forcibly remind her over and over what she was forced to give up.

Both Percy and Chiron seemed to be enjoying themselves, while Annabeth was putting every bit of her life energy into not looking miserable. 

Annabeth had dreamt about her first Nationals meet dozens of times, but this was never quite the scenario she envisioned. To make the situation even worse, Jupiter and Hera forbad her to even look in the direction of her old team, let alone speak to them.

Thankfully, after dinner, she was able to escape her prison guards and immediately found her way to Percy’s hotel room.

Sally opened the door and instantly Annabeth found herself being crushed into a hug.

“Mom, let her breathe,” Percy’s joking voice called out. Sally apologized and let go.

Percy then stepped around his mother and took her place in wrapping Annabeth up in a crushing hug.

She had to force herself not to cry, she couldn’t believe how good it felt to be back here with them.

How _right_ it felt.

Before anything could be said, the door from across the hall opened and Chiron pushed the two of them into Percy and Sally’s hotel room, he shut the door behind them.

“Wait!” Annabeth began before anyone else could speak, “Can we have 15 minutes without gymnastics talk? I haven’t had a normal conversation in months.”

Chiron said, “Fine but answer this one question first, did you eat enough at dinner? Do you want us to get you something?”

Annabeth nodded, it had been a small dinner ordered for her by Jupiter and Hera.

They were still part of the archaic belief system that a successful gymnast needed to be stick skinny and starving. They often told their gymnasts what they could and could not eat and then tried to make them feel ashamed if you gained a pound or two.

Apparently they were too ignorant to remember that muscle weighed more than fat.

Annabeth had spent the entire time at Jupiter gymnastics circumventing their “diet.” They told her to cut her caloric intake in half and start a food diary where she kept track of everything she ate.

It was an unfortunate part of the sport that so many athletes were treated this way. And this was tame in comparison to some of the horror stories she had heard.

Annabeth however, refused. They could make her life difficult and give her extra conditioning and repetitions, but she’d endure.

Annabeth would not be body shamed by anyone. She loved her body, it allowed her to do amazing things. No scale or person could determine her worth, only Annabeth could do that.

Everything she was going through made her appreciate Chiron more than ever. He didn’t have the abusive tendencies that so many people in the sport believed were necessary to get to the Olympics. Chiron was of the small percentage of coaches that believed his gymnasts’ sanity was more important than the medals they may potentially win. In fact, he was of the sound mind that the better a gymnast was treated the farther they’d be able to make it.

Percy started to say, “They are the worst…” but Annabeth cut him off.

“I was promised 15 minutes.” She sat on Percy’s bed and looked to Sally, “So, how’s Mr. Blofis?”

Percy groaned and sat down next to Annabeth.

“I can’t believe we're finally in a room together without dictators controlling your every move and you want to talk about her new boyfriend.”

Annabeth smiled. Something she hadn’t done in months.

***

The previous night had been one of the best Annabeth had since moving to California.

It was also the most she had spoken since being transported across the country. Besides the short trip, she made to Los Angeles to work out with Piper. That trip, however, ended almost as quickly as it began, her coaches and mother put an immediate end to that idea.

Currently, she was not on speaking terms with her father or mother, and Jupiter and Hera weren’t exactly conversationalists, plus during practices unnecessary chatter was not allowed, so trying to form any sort of friendship with Jason and Thalia was progressing, albeit slowly.

At breakfast, the three of them ate a small plate of scrambled eggs and bacon provided from the hotel’s continental breakfast. They were watched closely as they made their plates, but once they were left alone, Annabeth went up to the buffet and grabbed extra portions, plus a few bananas, apples, and granola bars for later.

Their bodies would need fuel to get through the day and if she had to smuggle food in to make sure she wouldn't pass out by the end of the day, then so be it.

She was even nice enough to grab extra for her teammates too. They hid their snacks away in their duffle bags just in time for Jupiter and Hera to come back downstairs and start ordering them into the van that would take them to the arena.

The first day of Nationals was making Jupiter and Hera more on edge than usual. Their words which were already normally terse and cold now took on a more domineering and strict tone. As if they were peasants to their King and Queen. 

At the Amway Center, it was immediately down to business, they dropped down their bags, took off their warmup gear and began stretching.

She was intimately aware of Percy across the gym, he had gotten to the arena early, like always. Annabeth could tell that he was nearing the end of his warm-up routine. He winked at her from across the floor. He was in full-on competition mode, he radiated energy. His excitement was palpable as he talked to the athletes around him.

More gymnasts were starting to trickle into the practice floor. She watched, in envy, as Piper, Hazel, and Reyna reconnected and stretched together, joking and talking all the while.

Jupiter had selected a spot on the floor away from everyone else for Annabeth and the Graces. They were instructed not to speak to anyone, including each other.

As the morning progressed, it was without a doubt the worst start to a competition ever. Jupiter and Hera spent the entire time criticizing and belittling the three of them for the simplest of things.

Annabeth took a water break.

Jason spent too much time in his left split.

Thalia put too much chalk on her grips.

Annabeth hurdled “weird.”

Jason went to the bathroom.

Thalia smiled.

No matter what they did, it was wrong.

Once warm-ups and their short practice were over, the three of them were pulled off to the side of the floor.

Hera gave them a brief “pep” talk.

“Do not embarrass us, you all are representing Jupiter Gymnastics do not forget it. If you mess up here, you can kiss the Olympics goodbye.”

Jason and Thalia were stunned, they stood in shocked silence until Jupiter’s terse shout startled them into moving.

“Why are you still standing here? Move. Get out there, now.”

Annabeth wasn’t exactly sure where ‘There’ was supposed to be. They needed to line up for the march-in before anything else happened. This was a tradition that started off every meet, team names were called, the gymnast’s part of that team saluted, and then the National Anthem played.

Once that was finished the meet would begin.

“Have they always been like this?” Annabeth asked.

The Graces both shook their heads but it was Thalia who answered unhappily, “They’ve always been strict, but this is something else entirely, I don't know what's wrong with them.”

To Annabeth, what was happening here was simple, Jupiter and Hera were collapsing under the pressure that USAG had placed on them. They could barely handle having one elite gymnast let alone three that were all in contention for top spots in the country. Plus, the constant presence of Athena as the National Team Coordinator, now looming over their heads probably wasn’t helping either. Jupiter and Hera were trying to stay ahead of the competition and spiraling downward in the process. 

It was a sudden realization that made Annabeth think: _I won’t let them take me down with them, I have to get out of here._

It wasn’t the first time the thought occurred to her, but it was the first time Annabeth felt like she truly meant it.

Her brain frantically began working out the logistics while they walked in and lined up in the middle of the floor.

_How long would it actually take her father to notice that she was gone? What if-_

Her thoughts were cut off by the loudspeaker calling out, “Jupiter Gymnastics”

Annabeth and Thalia stepped forward, pushed out their chests, through their arms back with fingers spread and pointing downwards.

Men’s salutes were a bit different when Jason stepped forward, he kept one arm glued to his side and raised the other straight up with fingers extended.

Then they stepped back into line with the other teams. The process continued down through the rest of the athletes.

Annabeth’s thoughts were swirling, so she only barely noticed when Olympia was called. The crowd exploded into cheers as Percy stepped forward. He saluted quickly but broke into laughter when he heard the prolonged cheers. He then waved with both hands energetically to the crowd, turning in circles, so everyone in the arena was able to see him.

Nationals as a competition was going to function differently than the American Cup. There would be no women’s competition and then men’s shortly after. To save time, men and women would be competing simultaneously. The competition was span two days, where their scores would be added together at the end to determine the National Champion.

Rotations were determined based on the results from the previous meet. Annabeth, Thalia, Reyna, and Piper, were in all together, and Annabeth didn’t want to dwell too much on the fact that they were selected to follow the full Olympic rotation of Vault, Uneven bars, Balance Beam, and Floor.

Clearly, the powers behind the National Team wanted to see how they would perform under Olympic type pressure.

It appeared to be the same scenario with Percy and his rotation too. Their two groups would be the ones to watch this weekend.

With Worlds and the Olympics so close, Annabeth knew everything that happened here today, and going forward would be scrutinized heavily.

_Just go out there and handle your shit._

As long as she tried her best, no one could fault her for that. Not even Annabeth, herself.

“Psssssst.” The sound came from directly behind her, she looked all around to make sure that Jupiter or Hera wasn’t near.

She knew it was Chiron before she even turned around.

“Make sure your block is strong, your height is still higher than everyone else, but it wasn’t as good as normal.”

Annabeth turned back around. She kept looking straight ahead, but she nodded to let him know she was still listening.

“Bars and Floor were great, just remember your basics and you’ll be fine.”

He paused.

“I know beam is your Achilles heel. But face it confidently and you’ll be fine.”

Annabeth gave him a thumbs-up behind her back.

“Thalia all of that applies to you as well. Good luck you two.”

Out of her periphery, she saw Thalia smile.

"Don't forget to breathe," he added as an afterthought.

Chiron finished just as the last team saluted. Then, the lights came on and the gymnasts were directed to their first event.

The U.S. National Gymnastics Championships had officially begun.


	10. Percy

When he was younger, Percy once walked right out into a busy New York City street without looking both ways. Sally had just been able to snatch him by the arm before he was hit by a bus.

The expression on her face then was identical to the look on her face now when he walked back into their hotel room after podium training.

She had to of seen a video of his fall from earlier in the day. She only had that terrified look in her eyes when she was worried about his safety.

He didn’t say anything, nothing would be able to take her fear away. Well except for retiring from the sport but he wasn't planning on doing that any time soon. He did the only thing that would offer Sally any sort of comfort. He held his arms out to hug her. She embraced him tight, and he could feel her worry lessen, slightly.

Percy had hoped the video would begin to make the rounds during the actual competition when the TV commentators needed something to talk about. With Sally watching live she’d miss the footage completely. It appears though that Percy had underestimated the gymnastics community, there was a huge online fan base, but Percy doubted that Sally had been on Twitter or Tumblr recently, so where she would’ve seen the video was beyond him.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” Percy told her, “I’m okay, really, it wasn't as bad as it looked.”

Sally knew gymnastics was a dangerous sport, she just tried her best to ignore that particular detail. They had an unspoken agreement between them where Sally didn’t ask how practice went and Percy never offered details more specific than, “Had a great day at the gym.”

She shook her head, “Don’t lie to me, you could’ve broken your neck. Percy, you could’ve been paralyzed.”

“But I’m not, everything is fine, it was an accident. I won’t let it happen again.”

“You can’t know that,” she said softly.

“I trust myself and my skills as a gymnast, I know for a fact I won’t make that same mistake again.”

Whatever Sally had been about to say next was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Sally opened it, Percy heard her gasp and watched her throw her arms around someone, who could only be Annabeth.

“Mom, let her breathe.” Sally did so almost sheepishly, Percy wasted no time in taking his mother’s place and wrapping Annabeth up in another hug. He knew their current conversation was not forgotten, only pushed to the side.

Annabeth’s hair was up in a ponytail, her face pink from exertion. She had a t-shirt and shorts thrown over a leotard and chalk all over her body. 

Her own podium training must have ended not too long ago.

Before Percy could say anything more, Chiron appeared and pushed them back into Percy’s room, shutting the door quickly behind them.

Annabeth didn’t let anyone get a word out before she put a hand up and said, “Wait! Can we have 15 minutes without gymnastics talk? I haven’t had a normal conversation in months.”

Percy’s heart broke for her, this wasn’t supposed to be how their first year as senior elite was supposed to go. They should have been together, happy, and excited for the challenges ahead. Sharing this experience to help prepare them for Worlds. They should have been growing closer but Percy had never felt so distant from Annabeth in all their lives.

He came out of his own thoughts just in time for Annabeth to let on that Jupiter Gymnastics wasn’t allowing the athletes to eat full meals.

They were the worst human beings Percy had ever come across, he went to say as much but Annabeth cut him off.

“I was promised 15 minutes.” She sat on Percy’s bed and looked to Sally, “So, how’s Mr. Blofis?”

They talked for hours, even when Annabeth’s real dinner of salmon and veggies arrived, they didn’t change course.

Over the duration of the night, the weight of the world seemed to ease off Annabeth’s shoulders.

Chiron let them stay up for longer than he normally would have for a normal meet. Once the conversation wound down and Percy and Annabeth couldn’t hide their yawns any longer, Chiron sent them to bed.

He wanted to walk Annabeth back to her room, but she assured Percy that Jupiter and Hera were always watching and if they were caught, it would blow up in both their faces and that was not what either of them needed the eve of a big competition.

Reluctantly, he agreed. He fell into bed before Sally could bring up their past conversation.

Percy couldn’t have devised a better distraction had he tried. One day soon, he was going to have to thank Annabeth for her timing.

She texted him when she got back to her room to let him know she was safe.

He replied back, “See you on the podium tomorrow, in less than 24 hours we’ll be National Champions.”

*******

The next morning, Percy’s nerves woke him up before his alarm.

He was up and ready to go in no time, banging on Chiron’s door, so they could get to the gym as soon as possible.

Chiron threw open the door, plainly tired but ready to go nonetheless. By now he was used to Percy’s early morning routine. He didn’t like it, that Percy knew, but he had accepted it as a fact of life at this point.

They were the first ones in the arena. Chiron even had to talk a few employees to let them in a bit earlier than normal. Percy knew he wasn’t allowed to practice just yet, but being in the competition space always lessened his anxiety.

Percy put his headphones in and started his competition playlist.

After that, the day flew by, warmups and practicing were a blur as the morning past. Percy allowed himself only three glances at Annabeth during that time, and by the looks of it, things weren’t going well for Jupiter Gymnastics.

Before Percy knew it, the walk-in had started.

Once the announcer got to Olympia, the crowd’s cheers turned into thunderous applause.

Percy almost laughed.

This couldn’t have been for _him,_ he thought. There had to be an even more famous person in the audience that the camera panned to. Maybe Tristan McLean was here to watch Piper.

Looking at the big screen in the middle of the arena squashed all doubt Percy had in his mind.

It was him they were cheering for. Surprised and grateful, Percy waved to the crowd with both hands. The applause loudened even further. This time, he laughed for real, before giving one last smile to the crowd and stepping back into place.

Percy missed the remaining teams being called in, he couldn’t hear anything over the sound of his heart hammering in his chest. All of a sudden the national anthem was ending and Chiron was herding him towards his first event.

Finally, The U.S. National Gymnastics Championships had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in a month?! Can you believe it?!
> 
> I kept this one short, but I'm really excited to start writing the actual competition so that hopefully won't take to long to get up.


	11. Grover

Gymnastics wasn’t exactly a topic that Grover was terribly knowledgeable of. Percy and Annabeth often talked about their sport in such complicated terms that Grover felt like they were speaking a different language.

But he had promised to watch Nationals on TV to support his two friends.

So there he was, on a Sunday afternoon, in front of his TV waiting for his first-ever gymnastics competition to start.

Seeing Percy and Annabeth on National Television was a strange experience.

Even stranger was seeing the number of fans they had. When the cameras panned to the crowd Grover could see many of the fans were celebrating his friends. There were kids wearing t-shirts, some with Percy on it, others Annabeth, the majority had both. Some people had created signs proudly proclaiming their love to either Percy or Annabeth. Grover’s favorite poster that he saw said ‘The Dynamic Duo’ and photoshopped Annabeth’s face onto Batman and Percy’s onto Robin.

Grover had already felt lucky to have them as friends, but seeing all this made it feel like the two of them were celebrities and he got to be one of the few people who knew them before they were famous.

As the cameras focused on the gymnasts a deep voice announced, “Welcome to the 2019 National Championships in sunny Orlando, Florida. I’m Al Trautwig, here with Tim Dagget and Elfie Schlagel. This is the final day of the National Championship of gymnastics, today two gymnasts will walk away with the honor of being crowned National champion, almost a year before the Olympics.”

The camera focused on Percy as he was in line behind another gymnast. He wore a tight shirt with ‘Olympia’ written in black cursive letters, tucked into a blue pair of shorts. The announcer, Al, continued with his monologue as Percy flipped and twisted down the floor, diagonally.

“It’s a true rarity that the United States can be this close to Athens and have two huge stars on both the men’s and women’s team who have a legitimate chance to win the overall All-Around Title. That’s Percy Jackson, a first-year senior who has taken the sport by storm, he dominated at the American Cup last month and he’s looking to repeat that success here today and use that as a building block for the success he hopes to have in Rome and then Athens. But he’ll have to battle through the previous National Champion first.”

The camera then focused on a pale-looking boy with white hair, his face was stoic and without any hint of emotions or feelings.

“That young man there, Octavian, may have something to say about it.”

The camera then switched over and Grover saw Annabeth. She was standing at the end of a blue carpeted runway, in a light purple leotard with sparkling rhinestones spelling out the letters “JG.”

The same voice continued, “Then there is our other star, Annabeth Chase, who dominated the women’s American Cup and took home the title, she wants to do the same here, but is it possible to have that same success now that she has switched to a different gym with a new coach?”

Annabeth ran down the runway jumped off a springboard and flipped herself over some sort of table.

“But we all know what the 800-pound gorilla in the room is because before these athletes get to Athens, they first have to go through the World Championships in Rome, Italy four months from now. So here we go Tim, please tell us what we will see here in the month of June.”

A new voice spoke finally, this time much more nasally.

“Well,” Tim’s voice explained, “this is the first process for selecting the World’s team. The winners for the men and women will automatically be placed onto the National Team and will be the front runners for the Worlds Team. Before the team is named, the top 12 winners of today’s meet will go to a development camp for a few weeks and from there the Worlds Team will be chosen by the National Team coordinators. That will give the US an idea of what they will have to work with once we get to the Olympics next summer.”

The man with the deeper voice interjected, “So with that in mind, what is the mood of this arena Elfie?

A woman’s voice spoke up, “I think you can feel the seriousness in here Al, everyone wants to make it on the National Team and you can see by the intensity and concentration of the athletes here today. Only the top 12 get to the development camp and they all need to be there if they’ll have any shot for Rome.”

The camera panned to a young girl standing next to the uneven bars. Her bright yellow leotard made her black skin glow. She had curly hair pulled up into a bun. Her eyes were set in determination.

The woman’s voice introduced her as Hazel Levesque. According to the announcers, this was not her best event. That would come later in the day. Grover watched in awe as she flipped and turned and jumped from bar to bar. He couldn’t tell how in any universe this was classified as easy or why the announcers were being so overly critical. To Grover’s untrained eyes, Hazel was doing a great job.

She dismounted and landed with a jump forward.

Tim, the nasally man, said “Ah, a pretty okay routine even with that giant jump on the landing. A mistake that will cost her almost half a point. I know Hazel is happy just to get this one out of the way early.”

The cameras followed the girl as she hugged her mom, who was apparently her coach as well. A box popped up on the screen with a few numbers in it that Grover couldn’t make much meaning out of.

Luckily, Al was already explaining.

“Today’s scores will be broken down into two parts. First is the D-score or the difficulty which is calculated by the skills the gymnasts perform. Each element is given a points rating from A to H, these points are added together, bonus points are awarded for certain connections. The second part is the execution. This is out of a 10.0 and where the judges deduct points for anything less than perfection. The d-score and e-score are then added together to make up the gymnasts' total score for the event.

Al used Hazel’s score as an example. On the Screen was a box with her scores, the man explained. “Hazel’s difficulty was 5.8 added with her Execution score of 9.27, which equaled 15.07 as her Total Score, which was pretty ok, wouldn’t you say Tim?”

“Of course, Al, that was one of the best bar routines I’ve seen Hazel do, if it wouldn’t have been for that shoulder-length jump on the landing, which cost her about half a point, her score could have been much higher.”

The woman, Elfie, spoke up as the camera switched to a blonde kid standing under a pair of rings suspended from the ceiling. “Now we turn to Jason Grace on the still rings.”

Grover sat in awe as he watched Jason flip and hold his body still in poses that looked easy but from the announcer's reactions probably took more strength than Grover would ever have in his life.

After Jason’s routine, they went to a commercial break and when they returned, a camera was staring straight at Annabeth as she stood with no emotion. She rolled her head from shoulder to shoulder.

Al, the announcer began, “So, now as we switch over to Annabeth Chase, how great is this vault she’s about to do?

The other man, Tim, replied, “Well, uhh… It’s crazy what were about to see from her. There are only a handful of gymnasts in the world who even attempt this vault, it’s very very difficult but she makes it look so easy and the height Annabeth gets is just amazing. I was watching her this week during practice and she was outstanding. ”

Elfie chimed in, “To put this into perspective, her new teammate Thalia Grace, the returning National Champion, has a vault with a difficulty of 5.5, it’s a Yurchenko with one and a half twists, her max score would be a 15.5,”

While Elfie spoke, the camera followed as Thalia and Annabeth stood in line, they each took a turn practicing on the vault.

“However, Annabeth’s vault is valued at a 6.5, she can score up to a full point higher. With a 16.5 it’s absolutely ginormous."

As Annabeth waited at the end of the runway, Grover could hear young voices from the crowd screaming his friend’s name, as well as a voice that he was all too familiar with. Percy had to be close to the camera because Grover could hear plain as if he was in the next room, his friend shouting, “Let’s go Annabeth, Come on, you got this,” over and over.

Annabeth smiled and then saluted.

She took off at a sprint, quickly flipping and twisting. To Grover, it definitely seemed like more than two and a half. Annabeth landed with the smallest of steps forward.

The announcers practically squealed. Annabeth smiled from ear to ear.

“Amazing, just amazing! You will not see height like that from any other gymnast.”

“That’s for sure, Elfie,” The TV was replaying Annabeth’s vault, “watch as she explodes off the board like she’s being shot out of a cannon, as she’s twisting, Annabeth is still going up in the air and her form is absolutely perfect.”

“Stunning, absolutely beautiful. This is going to be a huge score.” Elfie said.

“Wow,” Al began as Annabeth’s score popped up, a 16.0 flat, “so far, she’s the first athlete today to reach the 16’s.”

The cameras followed Annabeth as she put on a jacket and hugged Percy, she sat down on a plastic folding chair, out of breath but still smiling.

Now the cameras switched over to Percy. He seemed laid back as he waited for his turn on floor. Everyone else Grover had seen so far, Annabeth included, had an air of nervousness. But Percy stood like he was in line at a restaurant.

Tim was speaking as the cameras waited on Percy to begin. “This is going to be great. He has a lot of high flying and difficult skills. He was looking pretty good in practice and had a good routine day one, but he has the ability to improve today.”

Percy began, tumbling down the floor and performing tricks that Grover couldn’t even begin to understand. The announcers were quiet until Percy got to his air flares.

Tim’s voice was passionate as he said to the others, “now check this out! Watch as he jumps from hand to hand on his flares, it’s just amazing! That is so difficult to do…

“And he makes it look so easy,” Elfie finished.

Grover smiled to himself, he remembered the day he was with Percy when they both saw the breakdancers doing that same trick. Percy had looked at Grover with such intensity as he said, “I wanna do that.”

Grover hadn’t thought to ask him about it afterward.

Tim’s nasally voice broke through Grover’s thoughts. “Here he goes for a 3.5 twist dismount. Can he stick it?”

Percy, in the corner of the floor, took a deep breath and ran. He flipped and twisted quickly, three and a half times to be exact, even though it still looked like way more to Grover. 

His feet hit the ground and refused to budge.

Elfie and Tim both exclaimed loudly, their voices fighting over one another. The woman’s voice was able to get out “Gorgeous! Just an incredible stuck landing. That was a great routine.”

The camera’s watched Percy intently as he put a long pair of pants over his shorts and packed up his bag as he got ready to move to the next event.

The crowd cheered as the score popped up, and the announcers made startled sounds of surprise.

16.7

Al, asked the other announcers, “Why the shock and awe?”

Tim answered for him, “That is a huge number, completely deserving. Probably the biggest one we’ll see today.”

Elfie added, “and that he scored this on floor, is incredible, usually, floor for both the men and women is where the most deductions are taken. But Percy Jackson only had 4 tenths of a point taken off. It’s going to be hard for anyone to beat him after that score.”

Tim agreed, “That’s right, Octavian had been getting closer to first place after his day one disasters but, now Percy has just blown him out of the water.”

***

As the competition continued, Grover watched the routines of other gymnasts as he waited to see more from Annabeth and Percy. In his eyes, all the gymnasts were amazing, incredibly talented, and deserving.

_Why couldn’t they all just go to the Olympics?_

These athletes had worked their entire lives for these moments. They all had the same ambition and goals that the announcers would not stop talking about. Like this upcoming camp and Worlds and everything that comes after. 

Grover didn't think it was fair that some of them wouldn’t be able to make it.

Percy’s pommel horse and rings routine passed without incident, it was still shocking to Grover all the things Percy could do with his body. It now all made sense why most of Percy’s waking moments outside of school were spent at the gym. He was clearly in his element here, as he high fived and hugged his competitors with an enormous smile across his face.

“And now we’ll head over to Annabeth on uneven bars.” Al’s deep voice said.

The camera turned to Annabeth who stood at a bucket meticulously rubbing something on her hands.

Tim said, “This is by far her best event. Everything amazing she’s already done is cast into shadow by this routine here. Remember when I said no one would come close to Percy’s score earlier?”

Al answered in the affirmative.

“Well, Annabeth’s bar routine with a difficulty of 7.0, is the only routine that may be able to challenge Percy’s for the highest score in the competition.”

Elfie agreed as they waited for Annabeth to start.

Finally, she saluted and began.

Her routine was everything the announcers made it out to be. Grover found himself several times holding his breath. Not out of nervousness, just sheer awe.

She started by running and jumping over the low bar to the high bar.

“Don’t be fooled by the simple start," Tim said, "here’s where it gets crazy. She’ll connect a hopping pirouette into two release moves.”

Annabeth did just that, flying so high in the air, she seemed to float.

Elfie spoke up, “the height she gets is just amazing, and that last release move has never been done before. So if she makes the world team…”

Tim interrupted her, “and she more than likely will.”

Elfie kept going as if she was used to the interruptions, “and competes that release move at Worlds, they will name it the Chase after her.”

Grover didn’t even have time to think about how cool that was, because Annabeth was quickly doing other awesome stuff, like flipping and twisting between the two bars and completing one-handed pirouettes and other moves Grover had no clue of the names.

“Get ready for the dismount,” Tim warned, “Two flips and two twists.”

Annabeth flew off the bar, flipping and twisting quickly. Her feet hit the ground with a resounding thud.

“That’s Gymnastics 101 baby” Tim loudly declared, “Fly high and stick the landing.”

Elfie kept saying over and over, “there was nothing wrong with that, it should be a 10.”

Grover could hear Percy cheering loudly, even over the roar of the crowd which was going wild. His friend started a chant of “17.0” which he managed to get the audience to join.

The score appeared, Grover noticed Annabeth steadfastly avoiding her score and her new coach that was trying to hug her, but then the camera was panning away and focusing on another gymnast.

The announcers were still talking about it, even though the cameras were on a young redhead name Rachel Dare.

16.723

“That’s a fantastic score, even though I do agree with Mr. Jackson down there, it should have been a 17. I don’t know where those deductions came from.”

The other announcers both agreed and kept discussing Annabeth and the small lead she had over Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano.

They took another commercial break as they had all reached the halfway point of the competition. 

The next hour or so past by quickly, Percy had an excellent vault, but he was a little shaky on parallel bars. Annabeth had completed her beam routine without any trauma or major mistakes, even though the announcers kept mentioning how she needed to upgrade very soon. It was the event that Annabeth seemed the most nervous for. Grover watched as she took a deep breath and put her anxiety to the side so she could finish this performance.

As Annabeth competed, Tim kept commenting on all the areas she fell in practice and how this wasn’t her best event and she should have upgraded more now that she was at a more distinguished gym.

Whatever that all meant, Grover had no clue.

Even Annabeth seemed surprised when she finished without falling off.

Now, there was only one event for each of them left, and apparently, both Percy and Annabeth were great at these last ones.

Percy was up first on high bar. If this was going to be anything like Annabeth’s bar routine, Grover was already a huge fan.

As they waited for Percy to start, Al said, “Let’s take a look at Percy’s practice yesterday.”

A video clearly filmed on an Android camera played across Grover’s screen. It was of Percy going around the high bar, and letting go, but the release move seemed all wrong, Percy’s body bunched up like an accordion on top of the bar and then propelled him backward and down, head first.

Grover was horrified, he was glad they played this when he knew his friend was safe. He couldn't believe how close to disaster that was, without that man who caught Percy around the waist mere inches before he landed on his head, Grover doesn't know what would have happened to Percy. The video served as a gentle reminder that even though this all looked easy and beautiful, it was also dangerous.

“What you saw there, was Percy Jackson’s attempt at a new skill, one that has yet to be completed successfully. Tim do you think we’ll see him try that today.”

“No.” Tim said it quickly and flatly. Like it was the most obvious answer in the world. “He’s not ready, it’s better he plays it safe now with a 3 point lead and works on it more at the development camp that he’s sure to be going to, and debut his skill at World’s when he has a higher probability of landing it. After seeing him practice it this week, he’s not consistent enough.”

Al’s reply was cut off as Percy began his routine. He started with a nice jump over the bar. Then he wound up even faster and completed another release move, flipping his body in the air as he went over the bar to re-catch it.

“That Kovac was nicely done” Elfie said

Percy began to swing harder, as he tried to generate as much force as possible. Grover for a second thought that maybe the routine was over already and Percy was about to dismount. He swung around the bar with the same speed that Annabeth had when she dismounted.

Of course, Grover was wrong.

Instead, Percy twisted twice and flipped twice all while his body was completely flat and in the laid-out position.

Or so the announcers screamed as he caught his release move.

“I can’t believe he did it!” Tim and Elfie were saying excitedly.

Al said pointedly, “And what were you saying earlier, Tim?”

This completely went ignored as Percy continued his routine, pirouetting and completing one more release move that seemed basic in comparison to the last.

All the while the announcers were still going absolutely buckwild about Percy's new skill.

His dismount seemed to be the same as Annabeth’s except, he was completely laid out. When he landed, it was with a small step forward.

The crowd was deafening. Percy saluted the judges and ran off the floor in celebration. He slammed into his coach with an enormous hug, together they celebrated, hugged, and laughed at what the other was saying.

The announcers also laughed at the display, especially when Percy got back up on the platform to wave with both hands at his adoring fans. He even ran up to the closest camera and said, “Sorry mom, I didn’t mean to scare you. Oh, also, Hi Grover, I really hope you’re watching because that was really cool.”

There was more laughter from the announcers at that part, Finally, Tim said, “That right there folks, is your men’s national champion. Nothing short of a meteor strike can stop that.”

Grover couldn’t help it, he was grinning from ear to ear, just hearing his name said aloud on TV was exhilarating, he couldn’t even imagine what Percy was experiencing.

Annabeth ran over to him and engulfed him in another hug, the crowd cheered again.

They talked rapidly to each other, but the cameras were too far away for anyone at home to hear.

“This has been such an action-packed day, but we still have one routine left. If she hits it, she’s a National Champion just like her former teammate,” Elfie spoke as the cameras moved over to Annabeth now standing at the floor.

The next bit was all a blur, Annabeth and Percy had both seemed so invincible, that Grover wouldn’t have guessed what happened next in a million years.

Annabeth saluted for her final routine of the day, and her music started, an upbeat tune that got the crowd involved and could make anyone want to tap their feet too.

Her first pass was terrific, or so the announcers said. It was the second that she under-rotated, so when her feet hit the floor, her chest was too low. She couldn’t keep her balance as she fell to her hands and knees.

The audience along with the announcers all let out a dejected groan.

When Annabeth stood up, the disappointment and heartbreak on her face was undeniable. Grover could barely watch the last of it. If he had learned anything from his first gymnastics meet, it was that winners didn’t make mistakes, and Annabeth could end up another gymnast who didn’t get to achieve their dream today.

The announcers were talking about her prospective chances of keeping the lead but they made it seem like the probability of that was about the same as aliens landing in the middle of the arena and taking everyone there off into space.

As Annabeth finished and walked off the floor with her head down, Tim said, “She finished strong, but you can tell she isn’t happy. Annabeth knows that just cost her the title.”

Elfie agreed. “This just goes to show how unpredictable gymnastics can be, mistakes happen at any given time. Now we wait to see how the standings will change once we get Annabeth’s score from the judges.”

Off to the side of the graphic currently being displayed, Grover could see Annabeth sitting on the floor her head in her hands with Percy and a man Grover recognized as the man who had been celebrating with Percy only a few minutes ago. Words were being exchanged but Grover couldn’t make out anything from the distance of the cameras.

All he could tell was that Annabeth was heartbroken, this was worse than when she was telling him she was moving to California.

When the score came in, Grover watched as Annabeth’s name fell to second place and another jumped into the first spot. 

Looking closer at the scores, Grover's heart broke for his friend even further.

0.05.

That was all Annabeth had lost by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I liked writing it. For those of you with limited gymnastics knowledge, hopefully, this helped a bit. And if there are any of you who watch gymnastics on TV, then some of that may have seemed familiar. Thanks for reading!


	12. Annabeth

_At least I didn’t fall off the balance beam._

It was the only thought running through Annabeth’s mind as she finished her floor routine. Lucky for her, her body was able to finish the routine by sheer muscle memory without any input from her brain.

Percy was the first person to reach Annabeth once she had climbed down from the platform.

_He’s going to be so disappointed in me._

But by the look on his face when she got off the floor, she knew how stupid that thought had been.

To Percy, Annabeth could do no wrong.

She could commit a series of horrible crimes or quit gymnastics tomorrow and Percy would find a way to make amends on her behalf. Every Time. He was loyal to his core and she loved him for it.

He pulled her into a quick hug, knowing this wasn’t an affair she wanted broadcast on live TV for too long.

They both knew this wasn’t her best performance. She could be better. This was just a small bump on the path towards her goals. However, that knowledge didn’t do too much to fix the hollow feeling in her chest or the tears that were starting to well up.

_Ten minutes of self-pity._ That was all Annabeth would allow herself.

Annabeth sat on the ground to pack her belongings. Jupiter and Hera were nowhere in sight. Probably off criticizing Thalia, the only one who hadn’t medaled at Nationals from Jupiter Gymnastics.

Percy and Chiron sat on either side of her, they each took turns trying to take her mind off what just happened.

“We may as well go to Disney while we’re here.”

“Maybe this is the proof your Mother needs to let you come back to Olympia”

“I can’t wait to get some pizza and take a nap.”

“Coming in second by less than half a point with a fall isn’t bad, by World’s you’ll be blowing everyone out of the water.”

They helped to pass the time, which Annabeth was thankful for.

Waiting was the worst part of competitions, especially when you had a monumental fuck up and then had to have it thrown back in your face during awards, standing on the second-place podium with a silver medal dangling around your neck.

Luckily for her, the awards ceremony was a blur.

Annabeth was in a daze as the medals were distributed by an old man in a dark suit. She watched the man's lips move, intellectually, she knew he said something, but the whirling thoughts inside her own head were deafening and drowning out all other noises.

She held her head high like a queen and refused to allow any of her emotions to show through. She was happy for her friends, especially Piper who had come in third, they deserved this, but Annabeth couldn’t deny the sadness and regret she felt for herself.

Standing on the second-place podium, watching Reyna be awarded the gold medal, Annabeth made a vow to herself, “I will never let this happen again.”

Those words gave her a sense of purpose, something to strive for. She would never put herself in this position again.

During the men’s awards ceremony, watching Percy receive his medal actually made the numb feeling overwhelming her entire body dissipate, just a bit.

He smiled and waved to the audience, whose cheers and applause were unlike anything Annabeth had ever heard at a gymnastics meet before.

That was her best friend they were shouting for and she was so proud of him. There wasn’t a single gymnast who was more deserving than Percy. When he met her eyes from across the arena her heart almost melted right then and there. 

At that moment Annabeth promised herself she would never be apart from him or Chiron again, she was going to make sure of it. So Annabeth grabbed her phone and sent a text that would serve as the first phase of her plan to get back to New York.

***

They stayed an extra three days in Florida. Sally kept her word and let Percy skip school now that he was a National Champion. Since Annabeth wasn’t on speaking terms with her father and there was absolutely no way she wanted to be even remotely near the presence of Athena until development camps started and Annabeth had to, she made the executive decision to join the Jackson’s for some much-needed rest and relaxation.

They spent the first day after Nationals just relaxing at the hotel pool, letting their bodies recuperate after the strain from the previous day.

It was refreshing to just be able to sit in the pool and do nothing without any cares or responsibilities in the world.

Percy and Annabeth used this time to catch each other up on all they’ve missed during their time apart. Gossip from Goode Academy, Grover, even what Percy knew of Sally and Blofis’ relationship.

“He asked me to call him ‘Paul’ whenever he’s at our apartment so I can separate who he is as a person from his profession. Can you believe that?”

Annabeth rolled her eyes, “He’s a monster,” she said seriously.

Percy splashed her.

“Is Sally happy?” Annabeth asked.

Percy smiled wide and bright, “Yeah, she is,”

“So what’s the problem here?” She didn’t ask it in a mean or aggressive way, Annabeth truly wanted to know why Percy was so uncomfortable.

“What if they break up and Blofis takes it out on me until I graduate.”

She laughed, that was definitely not the answer she was expecting. “Mr. Blofis is too good of a person for that, now if your mom was dating Mrs. Dodds then I could see the cause for alarm.”

Percy conceded her that point. “What if he runs out on her like my dad?”

Annabeth softened, now that was more like it. “That may just be a risk you both have to take, if he does, we’ll be there to help her through it. But if you want my opinion, Blofis doesn’t seem the type.”

His voice was quiet as he asked, “What if she replaces me with him?”

She didn’t mean to laugh with Percy bearing his soul in such an uncharacteristic moment of vulnerability, but she couldn’t help it. That was such a ridiculous notion, Sally and Percy loved one another unconditionally, and no one would ever be able to come between that.

This time he flipped her off the raft she was laid out on.

“Ok, I deserved that, but think about this rationally, you’re a soon to be Olympic champion, so I’m assuming she’ll keep you around until the sponsor money runs out. Which depending on how well you do in Athens can be a pretty good amount of time.”

Percy laughed this time, “I can’t believe I missed you. And who says I want to go pro? Maybe I’ll pass on the sponsorships so I can compete in college later.

He made a good point, both of them had thought about competing in college gymnastics, but you couldn’t do that if you earned money from sponsorships as an elite gymnast. It was a decision they still weren’t 100% decided on yet.

Before Annabeth could reply in earnest, Chiron and Sally walked out of the hotel ready to relax and enjoy the Florida sun with them. They sat at a table, Sally with her computer, still trying to finish her last round of edits and Chiron looking as if he was in one of his organizational moods. Where he'd spend the next ten minutes planning the next decade of her life as Annabeth's head spun trying to keep up.

“What are you two talking about?” Sally asked.

They replied together with a smile, “Nothing.”

Chiron pushed on, skipping past any pleasantries. “Annabeth we're going to have to modify your plan for upgrades once you get back, so I want you to start thinking of the skills you want to try first.”

Percy looked at him, confused. “Is there something you know, that we don’t?”

“No. Annabeth, didn’t you talk to your mom?”

“Should I have?”

“Well, it wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience, but I thought maybe it could be a start to getting you back to Olympia.”

Annabeth and her mother’s poor relationship was no secret, and neither was Athena’s temper. She understood where Chiron was coming from, but just being in the general vicinity of her mother would have been toxic to her mental health on a normal day but add that to coming in second place, it surely would’ve been a disaster from start to finish.

“She’s probably still too angry to be rational. I wanted to try at the end of the week when maybe a sliver of her sanity has returned.”

Chiron nodded in understanding, while Percy and Sally remained tight-lipped.

She knew her mother frustrated and angered them all. As her former coach, it was Chiron’s responsibility to look out for his athlete, that Athena had tolerated, mostly. But if Sally or Percy ever crossed Athena or got too involved in their relationship, her mother would move heaven and hell to make sure Annabeth never came into contact with the Jackson’s again. They knew from experience it was impossible to change Athena’s mentality, so they offered their support as best they could, whether it was a shoulder to cry on or someone to vent to, they always provided the unconditional love that families were supposed to.

Annabeth was so lucky to have these three as her chosen family, without them, she didn’t know what her life would be like. She more than likely would have quit gymnastics years ago, once her mother had taken all the fun away. Hopefully, she’d be back with them for good by the end of week. She didn’t want to tell them about her plan just yet, certain events had to unfold perfectly before she wanted to get anyone’s hopes up.

***

The next two days were like a dream, they spent an entire day at Disney, trying to squeeze in as many parks as possible. Percy was determined to do all four, Annabeth and Chiron both thought that may be a bit ambitious and taxing on their bodies only two days after Nationals. But Percy was determined and persistent, acting as their drill sergeant, getting their group from place to place. Annabeth used to think he only got this diligent for gymnastics but it turns out Percy took getting through all of Disney World just as seriously.

They spent the day enjoying each other’s company. The only time the topic of gymnastics came up, was Percy explaining how he needed to lose weight as he ate ice cream shaped like Mickey Mouse while they were in line for Space Mountain.

Chiron smiled like the mad hatter, “I’m gonna hold you to that Jackson.”

Sally looked worried but before she could protest or express her concerns Percy was already explaining, “It’s not like I have a body image problem or anything, I think it would just help my gymnastics be a bit cleaner and lighter. Plus for rings, if I lost like ten pounds it would be more like a thousand.”

Chiron and Annabeth laughed while Sally was clearly confused.

“What he means is at the lowest point on the rings, when pulling himself up and down, his body weight is almost 20% more.” Chiron explained.

“So if you lose ten pounds, it’s more like you’re lifting 200 pounds less,” Annabeth couldn’t help but correct him.

Sally finally relented and saw her son’s point. The less Sally knew about behind the scenes of gymnastics the better. She was a worrier and wanted Percy to be happy, healthy, and safe. She understood the necessary measures it took to become one of the best gymnasts in the world, but the idea of _Percy and Annabeth_ executing those measures for years always wracked her with panic and dread. For everyone’s best interest, it was better to leave the work necessary to achieve their goals on the down-low.

The rest of the night happened in a rush without any further incident as they tried to make it to every ride before the park closed.

After their final ride, Thunder Mountain, they began to make the long trek back to the parking lot.

Percy asked, “Can we come back when were Olympic Champions? Maybe even go to Universal too?”

“If we come in October, we can go to Halloween Horror Nights too,” Annabeth added excitedly.

Sally smiled, “Sure, when you become Olympic Champions we’ll come back for an extended vacation.”

***

Their last full day in Florida was spent at the beach, playing in the water, building sandcastles, and relaxing.

They swam and jumped over the waves for hours, every time Annabeth had wanted to get out, Percy had begged for just twenty more minutes. The water seemed to give him the same amount of energy being in the gym did. In a different life, Percy may have been a swimmer, instead of a gymnast, training for the Olympics.

Later in the day, Annabeth and Percy laid out next to each other in the sun, while Sally and Chiron talked amongst themselves under an umbrella.

She turned to Percy, “I feel like a normal kid on vacation.”

Percy smiled, “Right? This feels weird, I can’t remember the last time we just got to hang out and do nothing.”

Annabeth agreed, “Seriously. I’m so ready to get back in the gym too, my body feels rejuvenated and ready to go.”

Suddenly, Percy jumped up unable to be stationary for any longer, “Let’s see who can do the most back handsprings in a row.” He ran down closer to the water, where the sand was more firm and easier for tumbling.

Annabeth was right on his heels.

Chiron was calling from his seat, “Don’t break anything or I’ll have to kill you both.”

***

The next day at Orlando International Airport, Annabeth’s real life was harshly thrown back in her face as her family had to split off in a different direction to get to their separate terminal. She hadn’t told them yet that she was in possession of two plane tickets, one to New York City and the other to San Francisco.

What her mother lacked in love, she tried to make up for with the use of Annabeth's own credit card.

Annabeth pulled her luggage off to the side and sat with her back up against the large floor to ceiling windows. She called Piper while she watched the planes move back and forth from the gates in a complex dance.

The conversation she would have with Piper would determine which city she returned to.

Luckily, she answered right away. Without any greeting, Piper said, “I got it all. Our Mission was a success.”

“You’re serious?” Annabeth replied incredulously. Annabeth had asked her friend for a huge and almost impossible task. But Piper was so casual about it all.

“So little faith in me Chase? I was in and out, without any notice. It’s all being currently shipped to the address you sent me.”

“I owe you, big time.” It was an enormous understatement. 

“That works out perfectly because my dad has a movie that will be filming in your city soon, so I hope you don’t mind if Hedge and I crash your gym.”

“After everything you’ve done for me the past few days, I’m sure something can be arranged.”

She ended their conversation and rushed off to the gate leaving for New York City. Annabeth quickly pushing past individuals from all walks of life, families, business people, and airport employees all the while an enormous grin on her face.

Annabeth ran up to the gate and flung her ticket and boarding pass at the young flight attendant. Clearly startled, the other woman said, “perfect timing, we were just about to finish boarding, you're the last one on.”

She thanked the woman and quickly made her way down the air bridge before anyone changed their minds and decided Annabeth was too late and wouldn’t be allowed to board the plane. When she crossed through the threshold and greeted the flight attendants, she let out a breath Annabeth didn’t realize she was holding.

Walking down the center aisle, she received a few sideways glances but not the one she was desperate to see. When she saw him, her heart began to pound.

Percy sat in the middle seat, his head leaned back, with eyes shut and headphones in his ears. Sally still typing away at her laptop must have sensed Annabeth's presence coming down the center aisle. Their eyes met with wide smiles. Chiron, who sat directly behind them raised his eyebrows as if to say, _it’s about time._

She tapped Percy on the shoulder, “Is this seat taken?”


	13. Percy

All of the exhaustion and fatigue from the past ten days caught up to Percy as soon as he took his seat on the airplane. These had been some of the best days of Percy’s life, until the realization that Annabeth would have to return to California came screaming back as they separated to go to their own respective terminals at the airport.

He should have been focusing on the ten days’ worth of school work that had piled up while he was in Orlando, but he just couldn’t bring himself to concentrate on anything besides the inside of his eyelids. So with his headphones in and music blaring, Percy leaned his head back and began to fall asleep.

After what couldn’t have been too long, he felt a light tap on his shoulder. If he was lucky Percy would have fallen asleep through the majority of the flight and this was the flight attendant with snacks.

“Is this seat taken?” The voice was one he would know anywhere, in any universe. His mind was reeling, trying to search for an explanation. Percy had to be dreaming because surely Annabeth would have told him…

But when he opened his eyes there she was. Her blonde hair falling in princess curls down to her back, her gray eyes fierce, waiting for him to say something.

Percy’s mind blanked, he forgot how to form words, so instead, he tried to jump out of his seat to hug her.

But, he forgot that he was wearing his seatbelt. Percy’s body that was so graceful and poised over the weekend, was now thrown back against the seat in an embarrassing heap.

Annabeth laughed as he fumbled with the buckle. Once free he crushed his best friend into a hug, she dropped her bags and returned the gesture.

A chipper voice interrupted their reunion. “As we prepare for takeoff, I’m going to have to ask you to stow your bags in one of the overhead bins, then take your seat and fasten your seatbelt.”

They were the only two non-airline employees standing, the other passengers were all staring daggers as if they were the reason the plane hadn’t taken off yet.

Percy let Annabeth take his seat in the middle of the row, as he threw her duffle bag above their heads and took the seat next to her on the aisle.

The plane began to back away from the gate while the attendants began their in-flight safety speech. Instead of paying attention to this crucial information, the way Percy and all other rational people did in case of an emergency, his mother was shooting off questions for Annabeth.

Percy was also curious to know the answers, however, they had an entire two-hour flight for that. Plus the subway ride back to the apartment. Right now they all should have been focused on the emergency exits and the floatation devices located under the seats, amongst the other crucial safety aspects of the plane.

“Do your parents know you’re here? How’d you get on this flight? Why didn’t you say anything before?”

Annabeth took a deep breath and explained her story (Even though the safety speech was still in progress!). How she knew she had to leave Jupiter Gymnastics and concocted a plan during the practices before Nationals.

“I asked my friend Piper who also lives in California,” Her voice started off confident, then seemed to wane. She was lying about something probably for Sally’s sake. If his mother thought that Annabeth was in danger or had lied to her family, Sally would be honor-bound by the mom code to intervene somehow. “If she would stop by my father’s house and grab a few of my essentials and ship them back to New York so I could come here right away and get back to training. Sally, Chiron, I was hoping I could stay with one of you until development camps ended when I could figure something out with my mother.”

Percy held his breath waiting to see if his mother was going to buy her story. He sighed in relief when Sally said, “Of course you can stay with us. We’ll work something out as soon as we get back.”

Percy had to get the real story out of her. He was dying to know what actually was happening. He stretched his arms out dramatically and yawned loudly.

“Man, I’m so tired right now, I can’t wait to get some sleep.” He was trying to plant the seed in Sally’s mind, Percy knew she never slept well during competitions, she worried too much for that. So hopefully she’d catch some much-needed rest in the air and leave Percy and Annabeth time alone to talk.

Luckily, Sally followed suit. She yawned, put her work away, and within 30 minutes of being in the air both his mother and Chiron were asleep.

Percy glared at Annabeth, “Okay, I’d like the real story now.”

She smiled, “I’m so glad I caught myself because at first, I didn’t even think about how this would sound to your mom or Chiron.” She paused.

Percy rolled his hands in a ‘Go on’ gesture. 

Annabeth bit her lip, in a sheepish gesture that was so adorable and captivating, Percy had to force his brain to focus on her next words. “I had Piper sneak into my dad’s house and grab all my stuff to ship it to me at Olympia. I figured it’ll take them a couple of weeks at least to notice I’m not in San Francisco anymore.”

Percy stared at her in shock, his mouth wide open. At first, he didn’t know what to say, so after a moment of hesitation he settled on, “You’re a genius, and out of your mind.”

She shook her head, “I’m just desperate. I wouldn’t have lasted there for much longer. They wanted me to put a side somi in my beam routine. Can you imagine? The ugliest move in all of gymnastics in _my_ routine. I would’ve thrown up.”

He laughed, “You don’t have to further convince me of their evilness, I’m not complaining, I just don’t want this to blow up in our faces.”

“I’ve thought this all through. Once they realize I’m gone do you really think my stepmom is going to let my dad believe it’s a good idea to haul me and all my stuff back across the country again? Plus Jupiter only talks to my mom and there’s no way she’s going to come to Olympia or your apartment to force me back to California. Especially when she knows she was wrong to send me there in the first place. It’s about 90% foolproof.”

Behind them, a throat cleared, and a gruff whisper spoke up, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear any of that.”

Percy and Annabeth turned their heads slowly, Chiron was clearly wide awake and poking his head through the space between their seats. “We’re just going to discuss the plan for your upgrades and that’s it.”

The plane hit a spot of turbulence, Percy’s stomach lurched as he squeezed his eyes tight in an effort to block out his surroundings. Percy grabbed the armrests until his fingers began to ache from the strength of his grip.

He forgot how to breathe as Annabeth pried Percy’s fingers from the seat and entwined her fingers with his. She knew how much he hated flying and always worked to try and ease his terror by taking his mind off the fact that they were speeding through the air at 35,000 feet with nothing to protect them whatsoever.

For the rest of the flight, Chiron and Annabeth helped distract Percy by mapping out their upcoming plans of action for any upgrades they wanted to complete before the end of the month when development camps started.

Percy didn’t realize how successful this tactic was until the plane's wheels touched down at JFK without Percy having a panic attack.

They were able to quickly exit the airport and catch a train that would finally take them home. Percy loved traveling, especially for gymnastics, but there was no feeling in the world like returning to New York City.

“Annabeth, why don’t you come home with us now, and we’ll get everything situated once you’ve settled back in and had a decent night's rest.”

Percy had been expecting this from Sally, and he was sure that Annabeth was too. Sally always treated Annabeth like the daughter she never had, but after this statement, Annabeth seemed to release a sigh of relief, as if she was anticipating just being pushed off onto someone else again.

Chiron agreed with Sally, gave Annabeth orders to be at the gym early tomorrow morning to start training, now that she had officially finished out the school year in California. Percy would catch-up after his own school day was finished. Even though he didn’t think it was necessary to attend on a Friday and have a 1-day school week, but Sally was adamant.

Before they all separated ways and Chiron headed back to Olympia, he pulled Annabeth off to the side to speak with her semi-privately. Percy was able to hear just barely as Chiron said, “When should I expect your belongings to get to Olympia?”

Annabeth smiled wide and bright, “In about 2-3 business days, don’t worry it won’t be too much.”

***

Over the next few days, Percy and Annabeth fell into a strict post-meet routine, it was a whirl of training, conditioning, and studying. The plan they created on the plane had been immediately implemented so the two of them would be even better and more consistent by development camp in the next week.

Annabeth was so determined to improve that it was a bit of a struggle for Percy to keep up. His skill that he had prematurely started calling “The Jackson” was becoming more consistent. Not enough to make Chiron comfortable, but Percy was trying his best. He had been spending a lot of time on high bar recently, his bare minimum goal for World’s was at least a medal on his best event.

The likelihood of Percy winning the All-Around gold medal at Worlds right now was slim, no amount of positivity would make him better than gymnasts who were older than him and had been training for much longer, at most he could hope for a team medal and one from the high bar. If he managed to medal on anything else, would just be the icing on the cake.

Annabeth was killing it. She was putting in 8 hour days at a minimum. Chiron some nights had to force her to leave with Percy. Her actions were borderline too hyper-focused, but he understood. It would have driven him crazy to come in second by such a small margin. Her main focus was on beam and floor, the two events that were the cause of her silver medal. Had her beam difficulty been just a little higher than it may have made up for her blunder on floor. And if she hadn’t stumbled on floor, then her low beam difficulty wouldn’t have mattered. This was a dangerous way of thinking, but Annabeth was too stubborn to actually listen when Percy told her not to push too hard. So for right now, he was watching Annabeth closely, and if he saw any alarming behavior, Percy would drag his friend back from the edge of insanity. He had just gotten her back, and he wasn’t about to let her go because of an injury or a mental block.

Having Annabeth in the gym again was like getting a severed limb back. They resumed training as if they had never spent any time apart.

Percy had to focus on floor and vault, after ripping open parts of his hands from so much time on high bar, he needed a bit of a break. Plus working on improving consistency and potentially upgrading on those events wouldn’t hurt either.

To keep practices interesting Chiron always tried to make games where they’d compete against each other. By pitting Percy and Annabeth against each other Chiron was harnessing their natural competitiveness to help both athletes improve.

They had made it a game to see who could stick the most tumbling passes. So far, it was a tie. Everything was going smoothly, nothing out of the ordinary. They were both determined to win.

Percy was actually having fun in the gym again.

After watching Annabeth land and stick a stunning double layout, it was his turn. Percy had been working on his double-twisting double back.

However, he had generated too much power from his round off- back handspring and was twisting too fast, he had lost sight of the ground and had no idea where he was in the air. Percy had to commit to the skill, he couldn’t bail out now, so he spun as hard as he could.

He was shocked when his feet hit the ground. He had a huge jump backward from all the extra force he had generated.

“Percy! That was amazing! Annabeth was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

“That was terrifying,” Despite his fear, Percy felt amped. The adrenaline pumping through his body made him feel like he could fly.

Chiron stood dumbstruck on the side of the floor. Percy couldn’t tell if he was angry or scared. Before he let his coach say anything Percy explained, “I swear I didn’t mean to do that, halfway through I realized I was pulling too hard and just kinda kept with it. How many twists was that?”

Chiron blinked a few times trying to regain brain functionality. “It was at least 4, but we can check the cameras later to be sure.”

Annabeth was smiling and clearly impressed, “Would it be crazy for you to train that?”

“Considering Percy has never even trained a triple-double, I’d say Yes,” Chiron had fully recovered from his shock and awe and had now resumed his role as the reasonable and realistic coach. “However, if we want to train smart and work up to that so you don’t burn yourself out, I don’t think it’d take much time for you to get that Perce.”

***

Just as much work Percy and Annabeth were putting in at the gym, so were their local UPS delivery drivers. Over the weekend, practically everything that Annabeth had ever owned had shown up on the front steps of the Big House.

The Big House was a large 4 story colonial-era home, attached to the gym, a large warehouse-like structure, at the first floor. That’s where the waiting rooms, one for parents to either sit and watch their child or try and ease their boredom, and the other for athletes to wait for practice to start, take a break, or complete their homework. There were also front offices, one for clerical work and the other a shop selling snacks, drinks, leotards, grips, Advil, and anything else that a gymnast could ever need.

The top 3 floors then served as Chiron’s home. No one ever was allowed up there, except for Percy and Annabeth.

They were the only exception to the rule.

Annabeth’s belongings were now taking up two guest bedrooms and part of the attic.

Chiron was slowly losing his mind. “You’re lucky I like you, or I’d charge you rent.” He had told her during their day off on Sunday afternoon.

Annabeth laughed, “I’m not living here, so you’re more like a storage facility.”

As Chiron maneuvered around several boxes piled on the floor he replied, “I’ll be sending you my bill regardless.”

Sunday was their only day off, they normally used this time to let their bodies rest, but now it served as the only time that the two of them could catch up on all the work that accumulated throughout the week.

Chiron left Annabeth and Percy as she was working on organizing her belongings and he began to finish up the last of his schoolwork from Nationals. Tomorrow was the last day to turn any of it in for credit, then all he had to do was take his final exams and he would also be done with his sophomore year.

Percy had arranged with his teachers to do that early so he could start focusing on gymnastics without any unnecessary distractions.

Annabeth finished what she was working on just as Percy was beginning his final math assignment. He had been working so much that just holding a pencil was starting to hurt the rips in his hands.

Percy had spent much of the previous night, peeling chunks of skin the size of quarters off his palms and then treating the gashes in his hands appropriately. That way, when he got back in the gym tomorrow, his hands wouldn’t be in excruciating pain. Hopefully.

He knew he had finally complained and whimpered enough when Annabeth threw a small tube of Orajel and a roll of tape his way. Percy spread the Orajel liberally over his palms to numb the pain and then wrapped his hands so nothing could get inside his wounds.

While he did so, Annabeth quickly grabbed his assignment and finished the last few problems he had left.

Percy stared agape. Annabeth offered her help often, but she never actually did the work for him.

Annabeth said, “I’m starving, and I can’t wait much longer for you to finish or my stomach will start eating itself.”

She did not have to tell him twice, Percy packed up all of his schoolwork and grabbed his gym bag.

They sped out of the Big House, calling out goodbye to Chiron as they went before he was able to give them an extra work out.

Chiron called from the front porch, “I want at least a 3 mile run from you two by the end of the day. I expect proof.”

After a few subway transfers and one quick stop at a local food truck, Percy and Annabeth finally made it back to the apartment.

Grover was already waiting for them in Percy’s living room, having been given a spare key, just so he didn’t have to wait out in the hall when they inevitably got back to Manhattan later than they anticipated.

Upon seeing her friend, Annabeth practically tackled him to the ground. Grover yelped as he tried to keep his balance.

“I’m so glad you’re here, I’ve missed you so much.”

Percy cut in before Grover could respond, “Sorry we’re so late but, someone had to organize their 25,000 leotards.” For that, he earned a light smack on the arm.

Grover was bewildered, “I missed you too.” Then almost sheepishly he added, “I watched the competition on TV, you both did great, I can’t believe you actually can do all that. You’re amazing.”

After their mini-vacation, Nationals had seemed lifetimes ago. It still didn’t seem real to Percy that he had won. 

Grover’s congratulations and praise made Percy’s head spin. It was a different sensation entirely from the strangers on the internet and his family gushing about his gymnastics. Grover knew practically nothing about the sport, and the fact that he was interested and amazed because of Percy was awesome. 

They spent the night catching up, talking about the meet, and watching TV together. They barely noticed when Sally came home, too enraptured in their own conversations. Until someone followed her in through the door.

Mr. Blofis was standing in Percy’s apartment. Hands self-consciously shoved in his pockets.

They heard Sally say, “Want anything to drink?”

“Could you spare a cup of coffee?”

In a sickeningly sweet and flirty tone, he heard his mom reply, “I’m sure I could scrounge something up.”

Percy was about to make a fake puking gesture to make his friends laugh, but one murderous look from Annabeth made him stop in his tracks.

Grover sighed, “I’m so glad you’re back Annabeth, it’s refreshing to have someone else around with some sense.”

Annabeth laughed as she headed into the kitchen to see Mr. Blofis, Percy wasn’t going to hold anything against her, Blofis had been her favorite teacher after all.

Somehow, Annabeth made the encounter with Blofis not awkward, as she talked about her school in California, the competition in Orlando, and everything in between. Grover, the traitor even joined in leaving Percy sitting in the living room alone.

Percy had tried to convince himself to be more open to his mother’s relationship. He was happy as long as Sally was. It was just weird that the man making her happy was his English teacher, it would definitely take some getting used to, he reasoned with himself. _Baby steps, Percy, progress over perfection,_ and any other wise words of wisdom that Chiron often spouted during practice that would apply to the current situation.

As the TV went to a commercial and Percy’s boredom grew to extraordinary heights, he decided to follow suit and join his friends in the kitchen with his English teacher by making a show of needing to tend to his injured hands.

He grabbed the tube of Neosporin on the counter and began to unwrap his bandages, revealing deep rugged gashes at the tops of his palms. They were fresh and newly ripped as of yesterday, so the gashes were a light pink around the edges. Hopefully, they would start to heal overnight, or tomorrow’s practice was not going to be fun for Percy.

It was painfully awkward at first, but luckily, Grover helped ease the tension.

“Oh my gosh, Percy, what happened to your hands?”

Rips were a part of a gymnast’s life that many people didn’t know about. Hands could only take so much swinging on bars before the skin split open. Over the years Annabeth and Percy had created the perfect rip routine. Bars being their best events, this was a necessity when they were young. Now they have the treatment of their hands down to a science.

He explained that to Grover with Annabeth jumping in to add certain details that he had left out.

Blofis watched on in amusement until his role as Percy’s teacher jumped to the surface.

“Ready for the final tomorrow? And to turn in your missing work?”

Sally looked at Percy expectantly, also curious to know the answer.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, I’ve been studying and working all day to get ready for all of those tests.”

“All of them? Tomorrow?” His teacher was clearly surprised.

Percy nodded, “Yeah, I’m crazy stressed right now but once I’m done with school I can focus on gymnastics and getting ready for camp next week, so it’ll be worth it, once it’s all done.”

Paul smiled, “Good luck then. The school work and camp. My niece is obsessed with the both of you, she made my sister tape Nationals, and they have to watch it every night before she goes to bed. She’s practically counting down the days until World’s.”

She wasn’t the only one. Since they had come back from Florida, Percy and Annabeth had acquired a significant following at Olympia. They were constantly being watched when younger athletes were training in their own classes. Rounds of applause now broke out every time Percy and Annabeth finished a bar routine or a vault. At first, it was awkward as hell, neither of them knew how to respond, were they supposed to thank these kids who felt the need to applaud them every chance they got? Percy and Annabeth did, until they both became a bit blind to the cheers, as it faded into the white noise of the gym.

Chiron had even started using the younger gymnasts as a way to see how well Percy and Annabeth would hold up and perform under pressure. If he wanted to test a certain skill or full event, he’d have the younger gymnasts stop what they were doing and watch Percy or Annabeth. That would probably be the closest they could get to manufacturing what development camps were going to be like. It would be so embarrassing to fall in front of those kids, plus it’d feel a bit like they were letting them down. To Percy, these kids believed in both of them so much that he refused to fail them.

Even their Instagram and Twitter accounts even spiked in followers days after Nationals, it was a crazy experience to go from 10,000 followers to almost a quarter of a million. Now they were even verified as if they were actual celebrities.

However, all that seemed pretty vain and arrogant, so Percy had no idea how to respond without feeling like an ass.

Thankfully he was saved by Annabeth’s reply, “That’s so sweet, it’s so surreal that we actually have fans, I didn’t realize how many there were until Nationals. It was so crazy.”

“You guys deserve it!” Grover piped up, “Before watching you all on TV, I had no idea any of that stuff was humanely possible, let alone being done by people that I know.”

They all laughed as Sally offered them all cookies she had baked the previous day.

Those cookies had been tempting Percy since they were pulled from the oven. Everyone took one, except Percy who was still determined to lose a bit of weight.

When he explained that to his mom she said, “But I didn’t think you had started your new diet yet.” It wasn’t like Percy to turn down Sally’s homemade blue chocolate chip cookies, and he knew that she was still worried about the prospect of him trying to lose weight.

“I haven’t, Chiron has a dietician or a nutritionist coming to the gym tomorrow so we can work out a plan, but I have a heavy suspicion that staying away from sugar is definitely going to be a part of that plan.”

“I must have been gone longer than I thought because that was an actual reasonable inference you just made,” Annabeth said.

“Ha-Ha, you are so funny,” Percy deadpanned, “Actually,” he turned to look at his teacher. “You gotta blame Mr. Blofis, as much as I try to tune his class out, he still manages to force knowledge into my brain.”

Paul smiled, “All part of my job.”

When Percy wasn’t thinking about how weird this interaction was and the fact that his English teacher was dating his mom, this whole _thing_ was pretty nice. Annabeth was right, Paul was a pretty good guy, and from this point on, Percy would try and make a much larger effort to be positive about the situation. Sally worried about so much, he may as well take one thing off her plate. Plus she deserved to have someone who treated her well.

They stood in the kitchen talking for at least another hour, but it was becoming harder and harder for Percy and Annabeth to stifle their yawns.

Together, Blofis and Grover left, leaving Percy and Annabeth to get ready for bed. Tonight was Annabeth’s night to sleep in Percy’s bed, they had been rotating back and forth, at least until they could figure out a more permanent solution once they got back from Camp.

Annabeth hadn’t made a decision where she’d rather stay the majority of the time the apartment or the Big House, Sally was already prepared to get another bed placed in Percy’s room, or even to section off part of the living room to turn it into a room for Annabeth. Percy was hoping that she’d decide to leave her stuff at the Big House and stay with Percy and Sally in the city. He sometimes still felt like she wasn’t actually here, that this was too good to be true and he’d wake up and Annabeth would be gone. It always made him feel better when he could turn over and see her in his room, or hear her soft snores coming from the living room.

Annabeth sat on his bed, her eyes grew wide and she drew in a sharp breath.

“What’s wrong?” Percy’s panic was immediate.

“We never went for that run…”

Percy smiled, “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“Deal.”


	14. Annabeth

Annabeth and Percy had been pretty much inseparable since she had gotten back from California. Until today when Percy had to spend the entire afternoon finishing his final exams and once he got to the gym, he was immediately sent into the recovery room where he was meeting with the nutritionist about his weight loss plan.

With the music blaring in the gym, Annabeth was alone working drills on the laser beam before she mustered up enough courage to take these new skills to the low beam and then finally the high beam.

A laser beam was a flat practice beam that sat on the floor about three inches wider than a normal beam. This was one of the first steps to learning any new skill on the beam, it helped a gymnast feel comfortable and get the muscle memory for the skill down before moving to the higher balance beams.

Her goal was to do one or two of the new skills successfully on the high beam at Olympia and then save the rest for practice at development camp, that way she wouldn’t overwork herself and risk an injury.

“Was that a Switch Split Leap that I just saw?” Percy called out barely audible over the music. Walking out of the recovery room, Chiron was close behind Percy, along with a woman in a rainbow tie-dye tracksuit. Percy immediately began doing laps around the gym, while Chiron walked the nutritionist out.

“It’s starting to look pretty good right? I’m thinking about trying to connect it to a Popa, wouldn’t that be so cool, I don’t think I’ve seen that connection before.”

Percy excitedly began to discuss the prospect with her as he continued his stretching and warm-up routine.

Chiron listening quietly to the conversation was ever the realist, he looked at her like they were discussing Annabeth's upcoming trip to Mars.

He turned the music down to a more reasonable level as he said, “I’ll support you in that endeavor, but you don’t even do that connection on the floor, and you want to try the beam? We also need to make sure you’ll get connection value for it, no point in taking the risk if you won’t get rewarded.”

Annabeth knew he was right, she wished that there could be an originality bonus or the connection values actually made taking risks worth it. She couldn’t stand the same old cookie-cutter routines.

Annabeth needed her routines to be original and innovative. It made gymnastics so much more exciting for everyone involved, athlete and spectator.

“In my defense, I have landed it on the laser beam.”

“And how was your form? On the seven-inch wide practice beam?” Chiron asked with a sly grin, already knowing her answer.

Annabeth sighed. “It was gross.”

Percy piped up from where he was stretching, “But you have to land it before you can start to make it pretty.”

“Okay, let’s see your switch leap.”

Annabeth took a deep breath and performed the skill, trying her hardest to make sure her legs were split completely 180 degrees.

Percy cheered for her as she landed, “Nice!” He called out.

“Now let’s see your Popa,” Chiron instructed.

This one Annabeth needed a bit more practice with, her straddle jump was always somewhat iffy on beam, and now adding a full turn seemed crazy.

She took a deep breath and went for it. She knew instantly it wasn’t as good as her split leap. She didn’t even land with both feet on the laser beam.

Luckily though for her, Chiron smiled. “We can work with that.”

***

The rest of the practices during the week, went by quickly, they spent their mornings strengthening and conditioning their bodies, so they would be able to keep up with the selection camp training sessions. Chiron had emphasized the importance of this since according to him the National Team Training regimen was intense. They had to make a good impression on the days leading up to the competition that would determine the team for Worlds.

The afternoons were reserved for working drills for new skills and their routines. Ultimately, the end of camp would boast the most important competition of Annabeth and Percy’s life. This is where they’d both have to try and beat out some of the best gymnasts in the country for a spot in Italy. It would be the toughest matchup of their lives.

Each day left their bodies sore but stronger than the previous workout.

Their recovery time also took much longer, some nights they’d be in the recovery room for two hours, trying to heal and protect their bodies for the next days' practice.

This was the best time of the year for Annabeth, she loved pushing herself to her maximum and to see how much she could improve.

Having Percy by her side was even better, they were both determined to better themselves. They pushed and supported each other to almost their breaking points. With Chiron’s circuits and full-body exercises, Annabeth felt stronger than ever, and she knew this would not be the case if she was still at Jupiter Gymnastics.

At the start of July, they began packing and making lists of all the things they would need for Camp, which would last about a month.

They had suitcases fully loaded, so it seemed like they were going on an extended vacation.

You'll need leotards for every day, they have a strict dress code, Percy you have to wear singlets, not shirts. Make sure you have enough shorts and pants too.”

They both groaned, at Olympia, they didn’t regularly wear leotards when practicing. Only on special days leading up to a meet, just so they’d be used to it come competition time. Normally, Annabeth was in a sports bra and Nike Pro shorts and Percy was only in shorts. They loved training comfortably, but if this is what it meant to be on the National Team then that was a small price to pay.

Luckily, the National Team Training Center was located upstate so it was only a few hour drive for them, whereas other gymnasts from across the country would have hour-long plane flights.

However, on the downside, the gym, which is used for the National Team to train was Athena’s personal gym that she owned, and as the National Team coordinator, it would be the place they all trained at before any major international competitions.

It would practically be the home of the Olympic team leading up to Greece.

Together, the three of them left at sunrise, from Olympia. No spectators were allowed, even at the selection competition, so Sally had to stay in Manhattan and wait for word of both Percy and Annabeth’s fate.

Percy and Annabeth fell asleep as soon as they hit the highway, and only woke up, once Chiron parked in front of the vast expanse of the National Training Center compound.

Chiron locked the car door, just as Percy was trying to get out. Chiron turned in his seat and met both their eyes.

“One thing before we head in there. Just know, we are a united front. Always. If you’re ever uncomfortable or if you don’t want to do something or if you’re injured, you come to me first, right away. I don’t care about the hierarchy that is going to exist once we walk through those doors. You both come to me first for everything. No matter how simple. You are under no circumstances able to go alone anywhere, with anyone. Either you are together or I’m with you. Do I make myself clear?”

His voice was strong and stoic. It garnered no argument, whatsoever. The nods of their heads apparently was not enough to convince Chiron of how serious the two of them were taking his speech.

“Many of those people in there, do not have the gymnast’s best interests at heart. All they care about is winning and they will do whatever it takes and risk anyone’s health and well-being if it means even the slightest chance at a medal. I will not let them treat you two like you are expendable. Because you aren’t.”

Annabeth and Percy looked at one another, Chiron never normally spoke so openly about some of the poorer and more toxic habits of the gymnastics community, it was something they all knew existed but rarely talked about.

“Yes, Coach.” They agreed in unison, more formally, so Chiron knew that they were both taking him seriously.

He smiled, “Let’s do this.”

***

The compound of the National Training Development center was enormous. The place was set up as if it were its own city, it was probably even bigger than many of the towns in Upstate New York that they passed on their drive up.

There was one gym, about ten times the size of Olympia in the middle of the compound. Surrounding it were dozens of cabins for the athletes to stay and sleep in, like a legitimate summer camp. Farther past was the mess hall and cafeteria, and more cabins for the coaches. Then several buildings for the different types of medical bays. Past that was a track and other outdoor equipment for the gymnasts to get in an alternative workout if they wanted. There was even a lake with kayaks, to the untrained eye, this could appear to be the Ultimate Summer Camp. But up on a hill stood an imposing and somewhat ominous modern style home with floor to ceiling Adirondack windows. It was the only thing throwing off the whole Summer Camp vibe.

Athena’s house.

Built strategically so she could overlook the athletes as they worked outside. There was no doubt in Annabeth’s mind that Athena also watched the gym cameras from the comfort of her living room to see how her gymnasts were performing when she wasn't physically in the gym herself.

For that, Annabeth was thankful. The less she’d see of her mother in person, the better. And the less likely the other athletes were to put two and two together of Annabeth and Athena’s relationship.

That was the ideal situation for Percy too, he was practically a guarantee for the World’s Team. Athena was vindictive, not stupid, so Percy would definitely make the team for Rome, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try to make his life a living hell along the way. The less they saw of each other, the better.

They checked in at the main office building like they were at a resort, where they were given their room assignments and the schedule for the next month and a welcome packet with a map of the property and other important details.

The blonde woman behind the desk practically threw the packets at them, with instructions to review the documents as a team and to not be late for the first team work out tomorrow morning.

Chiron walked them over to a pavilion where they sat at a picnic table, going through the documents together.

“I knew they’d have strict rules here, but this is insane.” Percy was dumbfounded.

Everything was strictly scheduled eating, sleeping, working out, and even any potential contact with the outside world.

If it could be regulated or monitored, it was. 

Especially, the dress code. Only leotards and they had to be from the brand GK. No exceptions.

They even had a certain assigned way to lineup before and after practice. Tallest to shortest. From left to right. Meaning more than likely Annabeth would be at the very end of the women's line, and Percy would be somewhere in the middle of the men's.

There was even a chant they were required to say after the end of each and every practice. They practiced it together, unenthused.

Chiron smiled, “welcome to the big leagues' kids, we aren’t in Kansas anymore.”

***

They got settled into their cabins, boy cabins on the left, and girls on the right.

Annabeth began to unpack in her own Cabin 6, with Percy across the way in Cabin 3 doing the same with a plan to meet at the lake in an hour.

They were both really eager and excited to see who their roommates would be for the next month. One of the best parts of gymnastics was your teammates and building the relationships with the other athletes that you would be going into battle with.

Other gymnasts would start arriving very soon, with their only stipulation being to arrive before the evening meal at 6:00.

After dinner was when the real fun would start. If they were all able to escape their handlers.

Once everything was put away, she raced over to the lake to meet Percy.

“How many beds were in your cabin? Who do you think they’ll room you with?” Annabeth asked once she found him sitting on a dock, his feet dangling just above the water.

“There was only one, that’s strange right?”

Annabeth was able to resist saying the first thing that came to her mind, which was “Yes.”

In her cabin there were three beds total, she had figured that all the cabins would have looked the same. “Is there other furniture or anything?”

Percy shook his head. “One of everything, dresser, nightstand, and all that.”

Annabeth’s brain was whirling, there was no way this was an accident, it had to be intentional on the part of Athena, for sure. Annabeth knew her mother would try and punish her for leaving Jupiter Gymnastics and California altogether. But she had figured that punishment would be for _her,_ not Percy.

Athena and her both knew what alienating Percy from the rest of the guys could do. One of the best parts of gymnastics was the camaraderie, the support from your fellow athletes, it was what helped gymnasts get through the rigorous training sessions. Having friends to talk to and hang out with is what kept them sane.

And now Athena was depriving Percy of that, and from the sullen look on his face, he had already come to the same conclusion.

She put on her best smile, one that Annabeth knew would catch her friend’s attention, “I’m sure it’s just a mistake that they’ll fix. We got here early, they may still have work to do.”

He smiled back at her, bright and wide. It made her knees week. “You may be right. It’s probably just a big misunderstanding. Come on, let’s go look around.” Percy stood up from the dock, grabbed her hand, and started walking off towards the surrounding woods.

She followed reluctantly.

The only downside to knowing him better than Annabeth knew herself was that she could always tell when he was lying.

***

They spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around the complex, trying to get their bearings straight and seeing what other amenities the place had to offer.

It was larger than even they had realized, there was a couple of tennis courts, a volleyball court, and even an Olympic sized swimming pool with diving boards. Beyond that was a full-blown spa and sauna.

Leave it to Athena to build the most outrageous and opulent training center the World probably had to offer.

Once the time for their physical therapy sessions began to approach, they both turned back towards the main area of buildings with a promise that they would be back to use the pool soon.

This was their first scheduled activity at camp. Normally at Olympia, Annabeth and Percy went to physical therapy twice a week, for about an hour, right before practice. Their therapist resided in Manhattan, so it was an easy and quick stop before they headed to Olympia.

Now it was about 100 yards between the gym and the therapy cabin. Once finished they had about 45 minutes before they were scheduled for their first short practice.

Tomorrow was when the tough work would begin.

They arrived a few minutes early, Chiron was already there, explaining to the therapist what it was that Annabeth and Percy needed done. Quickly, they were ushered to the tables and instructed to lay down. Heating pads were wrapped around their necks and placed under their lower backs.

They were left to sit and relax for ten minutes, Chiron sat in a chair between his two athletes.

“I’m thinking we just condition today, and start in earnest tomorrow. How does that sound?”

They agreed. Conditioning and strengthening their bodies was always something Annabeth and Percy enjoyed immensely. Many coaches used conditioning as a punishment, thankfully, Chiron was never the type. So where many athletes despised the large amounts of conditioning it took to become an elite gymnast, Chiron taught the two of them to have fun conditioning so it just became another part of their training regimen.

“They’re going to massage and scrap you, then I want you to do your exercises on the stretching bar and then you can meet me at the gym. I’m going to go set everything up. If they try and do anything else or skip something, call me and I’ll be back over here immediately.”

They both nodded and shooed him away. Two therapists replaced him and began removing the heating pads from them.

This next part was simultaneously, one of Annabeth’s favorite and least favorite parts of therapy. Massages. Some days her muscles were so tight, that a massage was torture and other day’s pure bliss.

The therapist working on Annabeth was currently digging her elbows into her lower back, she sighed in relief. Percy, on the table next to her, was writhing and squirming as his own therapist worked on his shoulders and upper back. That was their normal sore spot from all the time they spent on bars. But for once, because of all her beam work, Annabeth’s lower back was killing her.

After the massages, the moved on to the astym treatment. Something else that Annabeth had a love-hate relationship with. As they kept training harder and harder skills, they needed to make sure their bodies and muscles could keep up. The therapist used an instrument that looked like a plastic ice scraper, it was rubbed up and down certain areas of their body to break up any fibrosis and scar tissue that builds up to protect the overworked muscles. That often caused inflammation and tightness, but by scraping the muscles, it broke up the tissue so it was able to be smooth and reactive. 

Finally finished, they did a few exercises with a stretching bar to warm up their newly restored muscles, then they were eager to get to practice.

The gym was unlike any other Annabeth had been in, it was massive, with two stories, and dozens of pieces of each equipment. Already, there were several gymnasts who were practicing.

Four separate floor exercises took up space in the middle of the gym. One was currently being reserved by Chiron who had built and created an elaborate obstacle course.

“This is going to be fun,” Percy smiled, “I’m gonna wipe the floor with you.”

Annabeth’s competitive nature jumped out, she smiled back sweetly, “In your dreams.”

***

Later that night, after a nice cold shower, (it blew Annabeth’s mind that Athena would spend the money on an Olympic sized swimming pool, but chose to cut corners when it came to running water in the showers.) Annabeth returned to her Cabin to find Piper and Thalia sitting on their beds talking.

Piper jumped up from her bed with a squeal, she threw her arms around Annabeth.

“I can’t believe we get to be roommates this month, this is going to be awesome.”

Annabeth squeezed her friend back.

“Thank You Thank You Thank You, for everything.”

Piper rolled her eyes, “Don’t mention it, it’s what friends are for.”

Annabeth looked past Piper to Thalia, she was the one person Annabeth was nervous to see again. After all, Annabeth did just up and disappear after Nationals without a word to her or Jason.

“I’m sorry,” her words were pathetic, she knew, but they were the only ones Annabeth could manage.

To her surprise, Thalia pulled her into a tight and fierce hug.

“I understand, really I do. I’ve thought about doing what you did for years, but I’ve just never had the courage.”

“When you finally do, we’d be happy to have you at Olympia.”

She smiled, “I may take you up on that one day, especially after seeing you all practicing today. I can’t believe how much fun you were having. I can't believe you were allowed to smile. I’m happy for you, seriously. It’s good to know, not all coaches are like my father.”

Annabeth did truly wish that Thalia would take her up on the offer to come to Olympia, her and Jason both, they had such great potential that was being squandered by abusive coaches.

Even Piper was nodding along with Thalia’s words. Annabeth was again so thankful for Chiron. He always treated them as people first and athletes second. It was something she never realized was rare until the past few months.

Chiron always made sure they were enjoying themselves at practice. Like with the obstacle course he set up earlier, it had Annabeth and Percy laughing and competing against each other but working hard all the while.

He had incorporated all kinds of stations to work on the main areas of their bodies. It certainly worked, towards the end, after jumping over mats, dragging their bodies with just their arms, flipping over hurdles, climbing ropes, and a dozen other exercises, they had to push one of the giant block mats back and forth across the floor, and then box jump onto the mat once they got to each side of the floor.

Annabeth didn’t think she’d be able to finish, her body and muscles were shaking, her lungs tried their best to draw in breath. She almost quit, until she saw Percy. He was in just as bad of shape as Annabeth, but by the determination in his eyes, she knew he wasn’t giving up. So Annabeth pushed herself to keep up, to give 150% of her will and ability to finish the course.

At the end, they both fell down, their bodies almost giving up.

“Nope, you can’t lay down yet.” Chiron told them in his always aggravatingly composed voice, “Walk it off, get some water.”

Reluctantly, they peeled themselves off the floor and followed their given instructions.

“If you thought that was bad, just wait until the real training begins.”

Annabeth had never really grasped how lucky she was to have Chiron as a coach, he never yelled, belittled, or talked down to them. And on top of that, he never let the sport get boring. Chiron always put everything he had into being the best coach possible to make sure Annabeth and Percy would attain their goals.

It was only right, that they trained with the same intensity.

A sudden and sharp knock came from the door, Annabeth at first, thought it had to be Percy, but when she opened the door it was Hazel and Reyna on the other side. She threw her arms around her friends in greeting, they both clung to her.

“We have a few hours until curfew, anyone up for a card game or two?” Reyna asked with Hazel practically jumping up and down next to her in excitement.

They agreed, quickly making room on the floor, as they played, they talked, joked, and acted just like normal kids at a summer camp.

With Percy, Chiron, and her friends all together for the sole purpose of gymnastics, this month at camp was going to be awesome.


	15. Percy

_This next month was going to be terrible._

It was the only thought circling around Percy’s head as he laid in bed, listening to the sound of laughter from the surrounding cabins.

Athena hated him, this Percy knew. But he never would have thought she would be so petty.

She couldn’t do anything to harm or punish Annabeth so she had to take her wrath out on Percy. 

There was no doubt in his mind that Athena had convinced herself that Annabeth’s return to New York was Percy’s fault and that she was still better off in California, despite the fact she came in second place at Nationals.

Had she been at Olympia, that first place spot would have without a doubt, belonged to Annabeth.

However, accepting responsibility and admitting when she was wrong was not a part of Athena’s skillset, so Percy had to accept the fact that he was going to be seriously screwed over here.

But, if this is what he had to endure to keep Annabeth by his side, then so be it. As much as he loved the guys and being able to hang out with male gymnasts his own age, Percy would still choose Annabeth over them every time.

Percy was partly consoled by the fact that Athena couldn’t be openly hostile and antagonistic towards him. Her revenge had to be served in a strategic and calculated manner, because as much as Athena didn’t like Percy, and the feeling was entirely mutual, she needed him.

If he wasn’t on the World’s team that could significantly reduce the USA’s chances of medaling.

Percy didn’t want to seem arrogant or conceited, but he had to be on the Team. Even if he did awful at the selection meet, the chances of Percy being put on the team were pretty good. He had won at Nationals by more than 3 points, which in gymnastics is a huge blowout. If Percy noticed that, so did everyone else in the gymnastics community. Percy knew he was the front runner for the World’s team, the USA needed his difficulty and execution scores if they wanted to stand any chance on the world stage. That wasn’t an insult to Percy’s teammates, just a note at how great all the other countries in the world were.

It’s what made these camps so important. They all needed to get better, to improve, to push themselves farther than they ever had before. Being able to work together as a team was crucial to building the bonds necessary to form a dedicated and successful team.

The men’s US gymnastics team hadn’t exactly been successful at past World’s competitions.

There was only one US man who had won the All-Around and no US team had ever won the gold medal.

Percy hoped he could change that.

***

The first day of camp started with a skills test.

They were all separated by teams and sent to different areas of the gym where assistant coaches with clipboards documented their progress on all different types of skills. Rope climbs with arms only, 60-second handstand holds, leg lifts, pull-ups, and a whole slew of other exercises.

This showed off their stamina and endurance while also helping the National team coaches know what weaknesses needed to be addressed first.

It was a strange experience, this skills test, the coaches recording their times and reps were completely silent, they didn’t even give a nod or any indication that they had done a decent job. It was the polar opposite of what went on at Olympia.

Percy, Annabeth, and Chiron were always either calling out encouragements, trash-talking, or laughing together. The complete silence was something that Percy didn’t think he’d get used to.

It was a comfort to find that many of the others felt the same way. At lunch later that afternoon, Percy and Annabeth sat with their group of friends, talking about the earlier test, upcoming workouts, and what they were going to do for fun. That was something they were all going to need to stay sane this month.

“Sunday we should spend the afternoon at the lake,” Percy suggested. Sundays were the only day they had just one practice in the morning. The remainder of the time was given to them to rest and recuperate however the athletes and their coaches saw fit.

“That would be so much fun!” Hazel agreed, with Leo, Frank, and Piper all in agreement.

It was their friends with more strict coaches, Reyna and the Graces, who seemed uncertain. Percy supposed they’d burn that bridge when they got to it, Sunday was still a long way away.

***

After lunch, Percy and Annabeth had a pretty long break before the first official National Team practice.

“Wanna go to the pool?” Annabeth bumped her shoulder against his and smirked. She already knew what his answer would be,

He decided to surprise her by saying, “Are you just being nice to me because your mom is going out of her way to make my life a living hell?”

“Only a little, so you better take advantage of this while you can.” Annabeth smiled wide, to let him know she was just joking.

They separated briefly to change into their bathing suits and met back up at the beginning of the path that connected the entire Complex together.

Chiron was already waiting for them at the pool. He looked small sitting alone in the stands, meant for hundreds of people. He was looking at his phone intently. The Russians and Japanese were naming their World teams today, in Percy’s unqualified opinion that was a little too soon.

They ran the risk of missing out on gymnasts who hadn’t peaked yet or gymnasts still recovering from an injury. There were several gymnasts at their camp who were injured but came anyways to get in a workout or two and remind Athena that they would be healthy soon. 

“I expected you two a little sooner,” He sat down his phone and walked down the steps so he was standing on the enormous pool deck.

Percy expected Michael Phelps to walk in any minute, this place was so massive and official.

“Any results yet, from Russia or Japan?” Annabeth asked.

Chiron shrugged, “They’re coming in slowly. We can talk about it later. We may have a coaches meeting tonight to analyze and compare scores. I’m sure Athena is already crunching numbers.”

Annabeth snorted and rolled her eyes, “She’s really gonna take it that seriously? Shouldn’t we be focusing on us? _We_ are the only ones we can control, after all.”

She had a point, just because someone had a high difficulty score didn’t necessarily mean that person would be at the top of the leaderboard. There were plenty of other factors that went into winning.

“Do you want to be the one to try and talk sense into her?” Chiron asked with a wry smile.

Annabeth jumped into the pool instead of answering him. Percy was right behind her.

They swam exactly two laps, before realizing they hadn’t really worked up the stamina and the appropriate muscles to make swimming laps in an Olympic sized swimming pool easy.

Percy decided though, if he couldn’t be an Olympic gymnast then an Olympic swimmer would just have to do. The desire to push his body faster and farther was the same in the gym as it was in the pool. In a different life, he definitely would've been a swimmer.

They did a few strengthening exercises in the water, doing that was significantly less taxing on their bodies than if they were doing this at the gym, like the other athletes. They had even mustered up the courage to do a few flips off of the lowest diving boards

Turns out, that diving and gymnastics were pretty similar. The body awareness and control that much of gymnastics required to be successful was also needed in diving.

Except for one major difference.

“Don’t make a habit of landing on your head,” Chiron called out.

“I don’t know, Perce, you may have a promising career as a swimmer and a diver, if this whole gymnastics thing doesn’t work out.” Annabeth joked.

Chiron’s face fell, “Please don’t give him any ideas, I beg of you.”

***

They showered and changed for their afternoon workout.

Morning practices started at 8 in the morning and lasted until lunch at noon. Then they had a break until 4 pm where they’d practice until 7 at night. This left the athlete’s time for dinner, physical therapy, relaxing, or anything else they wanted to do.

Getting a small workout in at the pool was just the activity Percy needed to be pumped up and energized for the afternoon's workout.

Chiron was always overtly punctual, a trait that had been ingrained into Percy and Annabeth over the past ten years. So Percy was not surprised in the slightest when the three of them arrived at the gym before anyone else.

Normally, they would start warming up, but apparently, they had to wait for the official coaches and the rest of the team to begin.

They sat on the floor, stretching slightly. It wasn’t too long before other gymnasts entered, some sat near Percy and Annabeth to talk and others sat on the complete opposite side of the gym.

A coach in a white tracksuit from the upper floor of the gym began instructing them through their warmups. Additional coaches were spread out amongst the athletes on the bottom floor, wearing matching white outfits, they called out corrections to the gymnasts.

The boys were spread out on the back two floors, while the girls were in the front. They ran in a large circle to get their heart rates up.

Then they proceeded to be run through one of the most grueling warm-up routines, Percy had ever experienced. It started out slow, with arm circles, squats, crunches, and lunges. Then they added weights, and that progressed to press handstands, back extension rolls, jumps, and turns.

There was no resting, one move, and exercise rolled over to the next, immediately.

They were then instructed to do single standing flips, front flips, backflips, front handsprings, back handsprings, even front fulls and back fulls.

The coaches wanted to see how well they had mastered basic skills and the control they had over their bodies.

Percy loved this type of challenge, Chiron was right to try and increase their conditioning. If this was just a warm-up, whatever the actual camp workouts had in store for them was going to be intense. Percy was thanking any deity he had ever heard of when time was finally called and they were allowed a water break.

Percy’s water bottle had just barely touched his lips when the atmosphere of the room completely changed. All conversations halted and the temperature seemed to drop 15 degrees. 

Athena was here.

They dropped their bottles and rushed to line up, boys on one side and girls on the other, in order from tallest to shortest, left to right.

Annabeth at 4’9, was at the very end of the line for the women, whereas Percy at 5’3 was 4th from the end, with only Leo Valdez and the Stoll brothers shorter than him.

He kept trying to meet Annabeth’s eyes, but her gaze was transfixed rigidly on the ground, her gray eyes hard and unforgiving.

Athena walked up and down each line, observing her gymnasts silently and methodically. She looked at each and every one of them up and down. The only sound heard was the chirping of crickets from outside.

Percy felt like a deer in headlights, or a rabbit before being grabbed by a hawk. This woman was his only chance to make the world’s team and the Olympics. But that still didn’t change the fact that Percy felt an overwhelming instinct to run away from her as fast as he could.

Up close, he could see some of the traits that Annabeth had inherited, her gray eyes, blonde hair, and tan skin. But the similarities stopped there. Where Annabeth exuded an aura of calm contentment and happiness, Athena, at all times, had a barely restrained seething temper.

Athena’s frigid and unfriendly gaze peered into Percy’s soul as she looked him up and down from top to bottom. Her lip practically curled in revulsion. Percy smiled, knowing it would annoy her more than anything.

They all stood there for what felt like hours but probably couldn’t be more than a few minutes before they were dismissed and sent to their respected apparatuses to work on their skills for the day.

Percy and Annabeth both started on the floor because it was one of only two events that were the same for men and women.

Chiron would have to jump back and forth between the two of them, the entire month. Besides the athletes, Chiron would be one of the hardest working individuals at the Training Center. He’d have to expertly split his time between Annabeth and Percy, making sure to give equal amounts of attention. This often meant that Chiron was watching whoever was working independently from across the gym, you never knew when he was watching until he called out a correction or celebrated something you just did.

Luckily, this was something Chiron had at least 10 years’ experience in, Percy couldn’t think of a time where Chiron had slipped up in his coaching duties. He and Annabeth wouldn’t have gotten as far as they had, without him.

They started off with simple skills landing onto a mat in a foam pit and increased the difficulty slowly with each pass they took. Starting with back layouts, then a layout full, then front layouts and fulls, before moving to double fronts and backs. Once their heart rates were up, and they were feeling loose they started moving on to the passes in their routines.

“So what upgraded passes do you two want to try now?” Chiron asked.

“A triple layout,” Percy said with a smile.

Chiron shot that idea down immediately. “Too dangerous right now and unnecessary.” 

It was a skill that Percy had always wanted to try. A double layout was probably the closest thing to flying that he was ever likely to experience, so by Percy’s logic, a triple would have to be even better.

“Fine,” Percy relented, “How about a quad twist?”

“I want to work on a laid-out Double Arabian,” Annabeth said, "eventually, I'd like to do a half twist out of it, but that's probably not necessary right now."

Chiron smiled, “Sounds good, Percy, you may want to try that as well, the landing may be a bit better for your knees.

Percy agreed, sometimes blind landings from forward flips were not worth the pain.

Chiron clapped his hands together, "Let’s do it.” 

Athena watched the entire practice, she spent her time walking around and observing every athlete in the gym. Every so often she would make a comment to a gymnast or their coach.

From parallel bars, Percy watched as Annabeth bristled at the words from her mother when she was on beam, Percy would have given anything to go over there and hear what was being said, but he was in enough trouble for just existing that he figured it was probably unnecessary.

Annabeth nodded her head briefly and went back to the skill she was practicing. Chiron ran over to Athena to see what she had to stay, leaving Percy to work independently on a couple of skills he had been having trouble with.

Percy was trying to swing himself up into a handstand and then pirouette one and a half times on his hands. Each time Percy either under-rotated or messed up his hand placement.

Chiron without turning around, and still talking to Athena called out, “Percy you need more aggression in that swing. You’re going to keep struggling until you add more power.”

”You aren’t even watching! Percy protested.

“I don’t have too, quit being afraid and just go for it. Focus.”

Percy did as he was told, and was able to complete the skill successfully 3 times in a row, which was enough for Chiron to allow Percy to move on to another skill.

He wasn’t consistent just yet, but it was a start.

He eventually wanted to add it in connection with another skill for bonus points but that could only be done once he actually mastered it, which Percy figured could probably be some time during camp if he kept working on it.

Before he could get another pass in, Percy felt a cold presence behind him.

Athena’s words were sharp and short. “What is your difficulty on parallel bars?”

Percy straightened as if he was in the military. “6.0.”

“We need to improve that.” Her words came out in a blasé manner as if this feat would be as simple as crossing the street.

“Coach Chiron and I think we can get it up to a 6.2 by the end of camp utilizing connection values.”

She nodded, “That will be sufficient for now, eventually though, I’d like to see it at least a 6.4.”

Just then, Chiron materialized, having left Annabeth on the beam, “We have a plan in place for Parallel Bars, we will not deviate from that plan.”

Athena gave him a brief nod, before walking away she said, “Jackson, watch the angles of your elbows, it will help you generate more power from your swing.

She paused and took a deep breath as if Athena’s next words would pain her. “Your form on floor is excellent, I may want you and Chiron to work with some of the other men, to try and help them improve.”

Percy was stunned, when she was a large enough distance away and terrorizing Silena Beauregard, he said, “Did she just give me a valuable correction _and_ a compliment?”

Chiron sighed, “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

***

Once practice ended, Percy and Annabeth had just enough energy to eat and then fall asleep.

It was a productive first day at the gym, working on perfecting their skills in order to ensure they both would have flawless routines by the time of the selection meet.

Over the next few weeks Percy fell into a steady routine, he’d wake up, practice, eat, and then repeat. His only interaction with the other gymnasts came during practice, lunch, dinner, and sometimes on Sunday, and even that was becoming increasingly rare.

As the practices and workouts got tougher, lunch and dinner became shorter so naps and therapy sessions could become longer.

Even the laughter at night from the other cabins was dying down. Especially as the meet to determine the World’s team crept closer and closer, the aura surrounding the Complex and all of its inhabitants was growing more serious by the day.

At this point in Camp, Percy and Annabeth were beginning to piece together and add their upgrades to their routines. They were both feeling confident about their chances of being first.

A wrench was thrown into Annabeth's plan one practice, late into camp. They were both working on vault when Athena approached.

“Annabeth, both of your vaults are sufficient but have you thought about upgrading to a Cheng?”

Chiron answered for her, “She’s only recently upgraded to the Amanar, I’d like her to keep with it until after World’s and reduce the risk of an injury.”

Athena pretended to consider these words. Athena and Annabeth both got the same wrinkle on the top of their forehead when they were about to lie.

“I understand. So, I will accept your working drills for now, and we’ll see how they progress.” She walked away and immediately began giving notes to Frank, on pommel horse.

Annabeth’s eyebrows had risen to the top of her forehead. “She’s gonna try and force me to have a Cheng by World’s, isn’t she?”

Chiron sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “It certainly seems that way.”

“I’m going to blow my knees out at Worlds if I do this.”

Percy swatted at her arm, “ma’am, you’re dimming my positivity.”

“Well, you’re not the one who is about to start drilling Cheng’s.”

He conceded her that point.

A Cheng was one of the hardest vaults in women’s gymnastics, only a handful of athletes have ever competed the skill before. And Athena wanted Annabeth to have the vault consistent enough to compete on the World stage as if it was a simple as doing a forward roll down the vaulting runway.

Chiron was already collecting the mats to set up Annabeth’s drills.

“Perce, one more Dragelescu, and then I want you to start warming up on rings.”

Practice continued with Percy working his new still rings routine, which was progressing nicely. Losing a couple of pounds had already made an enormous difference.

Still rings required insane amounts of strength. They had to lift themselves up and down and hold certain poses for a required amount of time, and flip themselves, all while trying their best to keep the rings as still as possible. Too much movement or shaking incurred extra deductions. 

He watched as Annabeth slowly began working towards her new vault, Percy could tell Annabeth wasn’t putting her full effort into the skill, she probably could have at least practiced one into the pit, but being forced to try this vault before Annabeth was mentally prepared could have dangerous repercussions. Better to take it slow, than risk an injury.

Those were the type of thoughts Percy tried not to put out into the Universe.

Every practice ended with a lineup, where Athena gave them any updates or necessary information for the next practice. Once they were done, they had a chant they were required to say before they were all allowed to leave. The assistant coaches watched to make sure everyone was participating. 

Each gymnast answered together in a fast chorus, “Thank you Athena, coaches, National staff. Goodbye.”

It was only a little bit unsettling. 


	16. Chiron

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I had at least half of this written for the past several weeks and just couldn't seem to finish, until I realized that its literally almost 9,000 words, and that's why it was taking me so long to finish. I hope you all enjoy another chapter from Chiron's perspective!

This had been one of the longest months of Chiron’s life.

Not even his own Olympic games had left his body and mind this exhausted.

He spent the entire camp, running back and forth from Annabeth to Percy to make sure they weren’t being pressured into anything by the National Team Coaches.

Chiron wished he had someone at the gym he trusted enough to help him here, but they all had their own responsibilities at Olympia in order to ensure things were running smoothly in his absence.

Even having someone else here to help would have made Chiron nervous, there was no one he trusted more than himself to make sure that Percy and Annabeth were protected from any of the potentially abusive tendencies of gymnastics.

They had spent the entirety of camp, trying to pressure his two gymnasts into upgrading needlessly.

Just because they could probably do it, didn’t always mean they should. They already had made plans for themselves as a team and didn’t require any input from others, especially those who didn’t know his gymnasts, as well as Chiron, does.

Gymnasts were often burned out by this type of pacing and Chiron refused to let it happen to Percy and Annabeth. Many people in the gymnastics community believed 16 was the peak of a gymnast's abilities, that anyone close to or in their 20s should just retire.

Chiron didn’t buy into that, they were in this for the long haul, and if Annabeth and Percy wanted to do this late into their 20s, Chiron would be there to support them and make sure they were successful.

So far, they had managed to navigate through camp without any serious incident, no injuries, no forced routine change, or any trauma from the archaic beliefs that many coaches still possessed.

Chiron heard some of the things other coaches said to their gymnasts, and his heart broke for them, unfortunately not much had changed in the culture of the sport since he was an athlete.

There was exactly one more practice left, before the selection meet. The first place winners would immediately be placed on the Worlds team, then the National Team would spend another week or two deliberating on who else should be on the team.

Once finalized, the final week before heading to Rome would be at Camp, with just the team, to fully prepare everyone for Worlds.

Only a small handful of athletes had been to a World’s meet before, leaving the US team with very little experience. They will require significant training and practice to hold their own against all the other countries in the World.

Chiron was thankful for the National Team warm-up and stretching routines because it left him with a short break, so he could mentally prepare for today’s practice and the meet tomorrow.

He was confident in Annabeth and Percy’s chances, they had both been working so hard, he knew they were front runners for tomorrow, but he still worried over their chances.

Not that he’d ever let them know that.

Practice today needed to be deliberate. He could sense the nervousness emanating from all the gymnasts at the complex. Chiron instructed Percy and Annabeth to work on the skills in their routines. They had to complete each skill three times in a row, successfully, if they fell, they had to start over.

Then they had to successfully complete each full routine once. Anything more would be too much and could be detrimental. At this point, their minds and bodies knew what to do, and the more Chiron pushed them needlessly, the more harm it could cause.

This meant that they were going to be finished with practice before the scheduled end time, which was probably going to start a fight with Athena.

Plus, he wanted them to have a decent night's rest and some time to relax. He planned on surprising them with a fire by the lake and making s’mores. Obviously, no one could know about that, because everyone but the three of them, would literally have a conniption fit and probably try and revoke his coaching credentials.

But he knew his athletes, they needed something to help control their nerves. And since fall was fast approaching he couldn’t think of a better way to bring Percy and Annabeth down to Earth.

Practice was pretty uneventful for the most part until Athena joined the three of them on Vault.

“Percy, you have to be patient, and I know that’s like telling water to not be wet. But you keep rushing it, you need to slow down if you want to stick it.”

Percy nodded, but Annabeth spoke up, “technically water isn’t wet…”

Her voice stopped when her mother approached.

“How’s your Cheng progressing?” Athena asked.

“Slowly,” Annabeth said.

Chiron nodded, “Yes, we still have plans…

Athena waved her hand dismissively, “I remember your plans, yes, but I think it’s possible for Annabeth to complete this vault at Worlds. It will prove advantageous for the Team, All Around, and Event Finals.

Annabeth and Percy had identical shocked faces. They weren’t used to anyone arguing with him or flat out interrupting him.

This was a strange hill for Athena to die on, especially since the difference in difficulty wasn’t that great, and the risk didn’t always outweigh the reward.

“We will actively try and work on it, but if it’s not consistent by worlds Annabeth won’t be performing it there,” Chiron stated.

Athena’s eyes narrowed, “Brazen to automatically assume your athletes will be going to worlds. There is still the selection process.”

Chiron instructed Annabeth and Percy to keep working on vault. He pulled Athena off to the side of the gym so he could talk to her alone.

“I won’t have you threatening either of their spots because we won’t perform a vault that you only very recently asked us to work on. I will not risk an injury so late in the year.”

Athena cocked her head to the side condescendingly, “As the National Team Coordinator, I have the utmost control of who makes the team. I can and will threaten whoever I want. You and Annabeth have been stalling her progress, she could have landed this vault days ago. The US needs to make a statement.”

“You would risk your daughter’s well-being for that statement?

Her response was immediate and without any remorse, “Yes.”

Chiron took a deep breath in order to get a grip on his anger. He had nothing left to say to her, he began thinking about the potential repercussions of completely disobeying Athena. She had to be bluffing, about 90% of him believed that.

The US teams needed Annabeth and Percy, they both knew that.

Athena’s next words made Chiron’s stomach drop. Her voice stabbed at him like a dagger, her words picked deliberately. “I have made arrangements with Annabeth’s father to allow her to remain in New York. It would be a shame if that had to change.”

***

Fog rolled in from the mountains on the morning of the selection competition. The world seemed to be completely silent as Chiron enjoyed his morning coffee at one of the pavilions.

Until the alarms started going off.

Birds took flight and deer sprung from their spots in the tall grass to escape the noise.

Percy was the first out of his cabin, he gave Chiron a sleepy nod on his way to the bathrooms to get ready for the day.

It was at least another 20 minutes until Chiron saw another sign of life, he wasn’t surprised to see Annabeth making her way to the bathrooms as well.

Chiron never intended to turn these two into morning people, it was just a beneficial side effect of their time together for so long.

He had spent the early morning hours answering emails. There were still major news networks that wanted to record a vignette with Percy and Annabeth to play at one of the upcoming meets. Chiron had wanted to get it out of the way early since Annabeth and Percy both hate interviews, but then Annabeth had been forced to leave and it had thrown everyone’s life into a tailspin, so he had decided to reschedule.

But now he was receiving dozens of emails and calls a day from producers trying to be the first ones to capitalize on the views from Percy’s and Annabeth’s fans in the gymnastics community. He’d have to talk to the two of them once this all was over to decide which network they’d go with.

By the time everyone else was finally awake and out of their beds, both Percy and Annabeth had eaten breakfast and gotten dressed.

Annabeth had even put her makeup on and everything.

Now, they waited, and waited, and waited.

Which could potentially have negative ramifications. Waiting this long often caused increased anxiety leading to uncharacteristic mistakes. It was Chiron’s job on competition days to reduce the likelihood of that occurring.

They talked, joked around, and took a walk down by the lake, pointing out the deer, rabbits, and other animals that were wandering around early in the morning.

Finally, the gym was opened by the coaches and officials.

Annabeth and Percy immediately started warming up, while Chiron went to collect the day's schedule so he’d be able to prepare for whatever torment Athena had in store for him.

The men and women would be competing simultaneously, so it would take a lot of effort to switch back and forth from Percy to Annabeth in the enormous gym.

At a normal meet, there were enough gymnasts to have a decent break between events to allow for enough time to switch back and forth from athlete to athlete. But selection camps had only the best athletes in the country, a significantly smaller group of gymnasts, making the time between apparatuses shorter.

Depending on her mood, Chiron had a feeling that she would schedule his two athletes on different events at almost the same time, so Chiron would be constantly running back and forth, and barely being able to give corrections and encouragements to Annabeth and Percy.

Looking over the schedule for the meet, that was exactly what Athena had done. Chiron tried to resist rolling his eyes, a trait _he_ had picked up from Annabeth and Percy. He wouldn’t let Athena see that he was annoyed, Chiron would not give her the satisfaction. He was going to do his job, and make sure that Percy and Annabeth would make the World’s Team.

Once the other gymnasts began to arrive, Chiron could feel the mood of the gym change. Pivotal meets such as this always had a grave and serious tone, he hoped this feeling wouldn’t affect anyone’s performance.

Annabeth and Percy’s first event was on opposite sides of the gym. Luckily for Chiron, Annabeth would be first in the rotation and Percy last and that would switch with each rotation.

Percy was starting with pommel horse and Annabeth was on balance beam, it seemed as though Athena wanted to test their resolve by starting both of them off with their weakest event.

They both were in line for their two touches, the only practice they’d have before the competition started. Bleachers were set up on the second floor, which was strange to Chiron, usually, these events were completely closed to spectators.

But when crowds did start arriving, Chiron realized what Athena was doing. She had invited the gymnast’s families, to add to the already mounting pressure.

Families sacrificed as much as the athletes did at times, driving gymnasts to and from practice, traveling for competitions, and so much more.

Gymnasts often felt a tremendous amount of pressure to do well to make their families proud, Athena sending invites to friends and families at this point was only adding to the pressure of this being one of the most important competitions of their lives.

Chiron saw Sally enter through the gym’s front doors with two people following close behind her. Percy bolted from his place in line, he crushed his mother into a hug, exchanged a quick handshake with the teenager next to her, and awkwardly waved to the tall dark-haired man, holding Sally’s hand.

Annabeth was also hugging Sally and her entourage. Enormous smiles split across both of his gymnast's faces. It was apparent how much they had all missed each other while they were away at camp. While everyone else was looking more nervous now that their families were arriving, Percy and Annabeth seemed to relax significantly, something that Chiron was happy to see.

He whistled across the gym, signaling that they needed to get back in line and focus on their gymnastics.

They returned quickly.

Chiron waved and smiled, while Sally and her crew took their seats. He assumed that the tall man whose hand Sally was holding was, Paul, the man she had told Chiron about during Nationals. She had confided in Chiron that they had been seeing each other since Percy had first started at Goode Academy last year when he was in the 9th grade. Sally had been conflicted about whether or not she should tell Percy, Chiron told her to do so, slowly, it would be rough at first, but eventually, he’d come around. Percy loved his mother more than anything, it would take time for him to adjust, but he would deal, especially if Sally was happy, which from the look on her face, she definitely was.

Sally tolerated gymnastics competitions, the skills Percy and Annabeth did, terrified her. It was a mother’s worst nightmare for their child to risk themselves in such a dangerous way. She always supported Percy and Annabeth despite her worry because it was evident how much they loved their sport. Her presence and unwavering support always made a difference when they were competing.

The men would start first, with 6 events compared to the women’s 4, it was necessary to make sure they finished at roughly the same time.

Chiron watched as Percy began to enter competition mode. He never saw a person get so hyper-focused as Percy did during meets. His calm and composed manner was a stark difference from the other athlete’s nervous energy. 

Not even Chiron could escape competition jitters, even more than 20 years removed from his own athlete days, he could still remember the pressure.

By the time it was Percy’s turn for pommel horse, Chiron’s stomach was in knots.

He heard Annabeth yell, “Come on Percy!” As he started, which did wonders for kicking Chiron back into coach-mode. He couldn’t show any signs of anxiety, he couldn’t let his kids down.

“Breath. Patience.” He reminded Percy.

The routine went over exceedingly well, Pommel horse was always the worse of the 6 events. Even the most die-hard of fans could fall asleep during this apparatus, which was why when they constructed this routine the way they did, Chiron and Percy tried to make it as lively as possible.

They were lucky to be getting this out of the way first.

He flared his body around, legs and body swinging to the untrained eye, wildly. But it took incredible strength and control to do what Percy was doing currently.

The only rough spot being where he spun himself around on one hand. His hand placement was a bit off, he slowed and stumbled just a bit, before regaining control and dismounting the horse.

He saluted the judges, while the crowd cheered.

Percy high fived and traded handshakes with other athletes, then hugged Annabeth.

It was a good first routine, despite the small mistake. It would definitely help Percy build his confidence throughout the day.

Being last meant Percy would now be expected to go first on the still rings. Luckily, they still had to wait for the guys on the floor to be done.

Percy grabbed his water bottle and sat down on the floor next to Annabeth.

“One down five to go.” He smiled.

“Lucky, I just want to start already, I hate waiting. I never see why we can’t all start at the same time, and just let you all finish last.”

Percy agreed, “Or they could just space you all out longer, and then we could start and finish at the same time.”

They weren’t wrong, “Well one day when the two of you are in charge, you can change all that.”

Before anything else could be said, one of the event coordinators began ushering them over to still rings. Chiron was interested to see how much better Percy would do now that he had lost a bit of weight.

It was one of the best ring routines, Chiron had seen him do recently. He was shaking less when pulling himself up into his holds and his form on his swings was magnificent.

Despite a hop on the landing, it was still a terrific routine. There was definitely some room for improvement if Percy wanted to be competitive in the All-Around Competition at Worlds.

Luckily, they still had another month and a half to work on that.

Chiron knew that Percy had the potential to get into the top 3 of the All-Around, he could even be first, but it would take a lot of work between then and now.

He patted Percy on the back.

“I could have done better.”

Behind Percy, Annabeth was shaking her head, “Don’t be too hard on yourself. That was pretty good. You’re only going to get better from here.”

Annabeth hugged Percy one last time before she went to warm up for the balance beam. Chiron followed her, Percy still had a decent wait until he would move to parallel bars, plus Chiron knew that Annabeth’s nerves had to be off the charts currently. Starting with balance beam would do that to any gymnast, especially one who was about to debut a new-ish routine.

Her two touches were solid. Annabeth had a confident quality to her that Chiron knew would carry her to the top of the leaderboard if she kept this up.

“Square hips.” He called out, as she practiced her new leap connection. She landed perfectly like she was on the floor and not on a 4-inch wide beam, 4 feet off the ground.

That was one thing Chiron loved about Annabeth’s balance beam skills. Her skills that were consistent were rock solid, every time. There were certain elements in her routine that Chiron couldn’t remember the last time she wobbled on.

After the two touches, Annabeth was pacing back and forth with her hands on her hips. The other girls gave her a bit of room to focus.

When they were given the go-ahead to begin, Annabeth stepped up on the platform. Now the waiting began in full force.

Chiron watched as the judges organized themselves, and finally raised the green flag indicating they were ready for Annabeth to begin.

She saluted, with a huge smile.

The first part of the routine, they kept the same. Annabeth wouldn’t even consider changing her flairs mount, it was too original and gave her a decent amount of bonus points.

Then her first series, two back handsprings into a back layout were perfect. Chiron could hear Percy and the other girls cheering her on.

They called out “Let’s go Annabeth” “You Got This” and other encouragements. He knew she wouldn’t be able to hear, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt. 

Her turns and jumps were all immaculate. It wasn’t until she got to her new skills, the Split switch leap into a straddle jump with a half twist, that she had her first wobble.

It wasn’t terrible for the difficulty of the connection. Hopefully, they’d still give her the connection bonus regardless of the small balance check.

Annabeth took a deep breath before continuing. The rest of the routine progressed with only a couple of other minor mistakes. Definitely, the best-case scenario for the day. They had added some tricky and difficult skills, this was a good litmus test to see how Annabeth would be able to handle the pressure.

They would clean up the routine after camp and add any extra difficulty next year, after Worlds.

Annabeth stuck her Double Arabian dismount and saluted with another huge smile. Her sigh of relief as she hugged Chiron and then waved to Sally in the stands was apparent.

Percy was cheering and shouting from the other side of the gym and then rushing over to them when in reality he should have been waiting for his turn on parallel bars.

Chiron looked to Athena, also sitting in the stands and for a brief second saw a flash of something like regret or disappointment.

But then Percy was quickly hugging and congratulating Annabeth, and she returned to the emotionless mask she always wore.

He left Annabeth to watch the other girls, while Chiron left with Percy to start warming up for parallel bars.

Every so often, he’d hear Annabeth’s voice cheer for one of the other gymnasts in her rotation group.

Chiron was too busy to watch anyone else but Annabeth or Percy perform, but he had figured by Annabeth’s loud shout of, “That’s okay! Keep Going, You got this!” meant one of the girls had fallen, But Chiron couldn’t look to see who it was now.

Instead, he watched Percy’s form. Unfortunately, his hand placements have been better.

Percy was forgetting his basics.

Which was uncharacteristic of him, especially during competitions. Chiron hoped that his nerves weren’t getting the best of him. This was probably the most pressure he’s felt ever in his career.

Once he finished with his first practice round, Chiron slowly and silently walked up and stood next to Percy.

Chiron waited for him to say something first.

“That was ugly, I know.”

“What were you thinking up there?”

“Nothing really, mainly that I didn’t want to mess up,” Percy said, sheepishly looking down at the ground.

Chiron raised an eyebrow, “And how’d that work out?”

Percy huffed, “Not great.”

Chiron placed a hand on his back, “Stay focused, be positive, and visualize your routines. Think of this as just a normal day at practice.”

Percy nodded and took a deep breath. Instantly his demeanor changed. Percy’s trademark positivity began to shine, he walked lighter and straighter.

“Do you think I’ll have time to see Annabeth’s floor?”

Chiron checked his watch and looked at the schedule, Percy would compete on high bar before Annabeth went on floor, then she would have to rush to vault where she’d be going first. If they were strategic, they should be able to swing it. Which was what he told Percy.

Luckily for Chiron, they hit a spot in the day where both Annabeth and Percy were waiting for their next apparatus. Which meant that this would be Chiron’s only opportunity to sit down for the day, which he was thankful for. His knees weren’t exactly what they used to be, especially after his multiple surgeries during his glory days. The past month was definitely starting to catch up with him.

Percy in the middle of talking to and messing around with his friends must have picked up on Chiron’s fatigue.

“You okay, Old man?”

“Please, I’m not old yet, I can still take you on, probably even beat you on high bar.”

Percy laughed, a laugh that only a confident teenager could produce.

“What?” Chiron asked, “You don’t believe me?” He wrapped his arm around Percy’s neck and rubbed his knuckles across the top of his head. They used to mess around like this during meets when Percy and Annabeth were much littler, it was always a great way to distract them from their nerves.

Now Chiron was using this to take _his_ mind off his own exhaustion.

Percy removed himself from Chiron’s grasp and started throwing fake punches Chiron’s way. Chiron bobbed and weaved and threw his own punches back, and eventually, the two of them were roaring with laughter.

Something that did not go missed by most of those in attendance. Some coaches looked on in distaste, others were just happy to see them enjoying themselves. After all, what was the point of all of this if they didn’t at least have a good time in the process?

Annabeth stood across the gym, hands on her hips, eyebrows raised high, and a bemused look on her face 

Simultaneously, Percy and Chiron pointed at each other, to say ‘He started it.’

She smiled, rolled her eyes, and began talking to some of the other girls in her rotation who were also staring. They all laughed at something she said and then went back to watching whoever was up on the balance beam.

Before they knew it, it was Percy’s turn to perform on parallel bars.

From the second his hands wrapped around the bars, Percy transformed into a completely different athlete than when he was warming up.

His confidence shown through with every swing, release move, and pirouette. Percy swung, and flipped, and twisted with only minimal mistakes. His dismount a double back with a full twist was almost perfect except for a step back on the landing.

Percy saluted ecstatically and ran off the floor to high five and hug the other gymnasts. Annabeth across the gym was cheering loudly, as was Sally and the others in the crowd.

“The hardest part of your day is done, only your best events are next,” Chiron told him, despite knowing that didn’t guarantee Percy would hit his next routines.

Nothing in this sport was certain. But Chiron’s worry dissipated as soon as Percy’s face lit up with excitement.

They were ready and prepared, but that didn’t do much to quell Chiron’s nerves.

He forced it aside, Chiron had a job to do. His athletes were delivering, so he had to as well.

The men had a brief break, having made it to the halfway point of the day. Chiron met up with Annabeth who was waiting for her turn to go on floor.

“Remember your basics, straight arms, generate power from your legs. You got this.”

Annabeth nodded her head. This was her first-floor routine at a meet after the Nationals fiasco. Chiron knew she wanted to prove herself.

“This is just another day at practice. You’ve hit routine after routine this week. You got this.”

Annabeth smiled, “I’m ready, I want to redeem myself.”

“You will, all the way to Rome.” She hugged him quickly, then went to talk to some of the other girls who were waiting for their turns too.

Percy met up with them, snacking on a granola bar. He probably wasn’t supposed to be over here, but Chiron wasn’t going to stop him, if he wanted to watch Annabeth’s routine during his break, Chiron saw no harm in that.

They talked and joked while watching and cheering for one of the girls currently on floor, her salsa music booming throughout the gym.

Once the music stopped, the crowd cheered and Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano walked off the floor, breathing heavily.

Annabeth separated herself from the group, leaving Percy with the other girls to watch the current gymnast performing.

She was up next and needed these remaining moments to focus herself and concentrate.

New music began, this time a classical piece by Mozart.

Annabeth didn’t watch, she was always too nervous right before her performance.

Many gymnasts and their coaches flat out refused to watch other athletes perform at all, but Chiron didn’t necessarily believe in that. They all loved gymnastics and had the best seats in the house, watching others was one of the best parts of meets.

However, right before their own routine was not a time to admire others. Annabeth’s nervous energy had to go somewhere. Annabeth started by fixing her eyes on the ground. Chiron knew she was visualizing her own routine, to help prepare herself. She even did a few quick stretches, none that were necessarily needed but took her mind off waiting. She touched her toes, crossed one arm over her body to stretch her shoulders, and rolled her head around in circles.

After what felt like hours, the music finally stopped and Thalia Grace came down the stairs, Annabeth hugged her, and stepped up to the platform herself.

She waited on the white part of the floor for the judge's green flag. This was normally the longest process of the day. Judges always took their time. That was one thing that hadn’t changed from his own gym days.

Finally, the flag rose.

Annabeth stepped onto the floor, with an elegant flourish.

Her music began, an upbeat tempo that got everyone clapping and nodding along. She danced herself into the corner of the floor in preparation for her first tumbling pass.

A double-twisting double layout landed with a small jump backward.

Landings on floor they’d have to work on before worlds. Those were deductions they couldn’t afford if they wanted to be competitive and have a shot at a medal or two.

Annabeth’s problem, which wasn’t really a problem, was that she always had tons of power, which caused her to have steps or hops on her landings.

Once they got that under control, she’d be almost unstoppable.

Maybe they could begin adding sheep jumps or split leaps after she landed to hide the steps on the landings.

Her next tumbling pass is what he was worried about, this was the one she under-rotated at Nationals.

It was not an easy pass at all, but this time Annabeth made it look like a walk in the park.

A laid out double Arabian. A skill that she went into backward, half twisted in the air, and then flipped forward twice completely laid out.

It was beautiful. Especially her stuck landing.

Percy and the others were going wild. Calling out encouragements and celebratory remarks.

She then began her jump and turns series. Beautifully and artistically, Annabeth completed her switch split jump, which lead to her triple Y turn. A move where she pulled her leg up straight so it rested against her head and spun three times quickly.

Annabeth stepped out of the turn, with another flourish, and immediately completed another double turn.

A combination that granted her extra bonus points for sheer difficulty alone.

She proceeded with her choreography and dance, prancing around the floor with a huge smile plastered on her face.

This was the Annabeth, Chiron loved to see at meets. Floor routines were one of the only events where the gymnasts could show off their personalities and, Annabeth’s was on full display, as well as her love for the sport.

After a handstand series that led to a gorgeous butterfly kick into a dive roll, then a ring jump came the last two passes.

The first of which was her newest addition a 1.5 twist step out right into a double back with a full twist which was landed with only a small step and the last was a triple twist with an absolutely incredible stuck landing.

Even Chiron was cheering for her loudly as she saluted the judges.

He picked her up off the platform and set her on her feet, so she didn’t have to walk down the stairs.

Percy was by her side in an instant.

“I mean this with absolutely no exaggeration when I say that was High Art. Magnificent. Beautiful.”

Annabeth laughed and hugged her friend, the other girls also crowded around to hug and laugh about how amazing her floor routine was. Annabeth smiled, still trying to catch her breath.

Floor was pretty much a huge endurance test, be able to complete 4 insanely difficult tumbling passes while also jumping, running, dancing, and twisting was a lot. He was pleased to see that Annabeth, despite her fight for breath, was able to finish strong on her floor routine. 

“Normally, I’d say Percy was being overdramatic, but this time, I think he’s right.”

Percy crossed his arms, “You don’t have to sound like admitting that pains you, ya know?”

Chiron smiled, he said nothing, just pointed towards the high bar, which was where Percy was supposed to be currently.

Percy perked up like he had forgotten that he was even at a competition right now, let alone about to perform on high bar.

Which Chiron took as a positive. That meant Percy finally hit his stride and finally put his nerves behind him.

He would be first up on high bar, where Annabeth would be last on vault. They’d be cutting it close to be able to see the other compete.

Chiron ushered them both to their respective apparatus, which luckily enough for him, weren’t too far apart from each other. That significantly reduced the amount of running back and forth Chiron would have to do, until the next rotation which was on opposite ends of the gym again.

Percy, first up on high bar, stood confidently waiting for the judges to indicate he could begin. Chiron looked to Sally in the stands, he knew she hated this event the most.

Her hands clutched around Paul’s arms with her eyes scrunched uptight as she buried her head into his shoulder.

The teenager to her right was watching eagerly, excitement plain as day on his face.

Percy routine started off terrific, his high flying release moved really electrified the energy in the gym, for both athletes and spectators.

His Kovacs and Tkatchevs were perfectly executed. His issue was on the new skill, in the air, everything was fine, but catching it was where something went wrong.

Percy’s hand slipped, Chiron closed his eyes and expected to hear a loud chorus of ‘Awe’s’ and gasps from the crowd but instead, he heard startled cheers.

He looked up just in time to realize that Percy completely held on and was able to catch his release move one-handed and then complete a giant swing around the bar, still with only one hand.

Chiron let out a sigh of relief, that mistake would be a deduction, but not as costly as if he had fallen off the bar completely.

“That’s alright Perce, you got this, keep pushing!” Annabeth called from in line at the vaulting table.

Percy wound up for the dismount which he managed to land perfectly. The crowd cheered.

Normally, Percy soaked in all the praise and cheers he received from the crowd but as he walked off the platform he looked more dejected than anything.

Chiron followed him to where he sat on a plastic folding chair.

Percy was rolling and massaging his shoulder. Hopefully, it was just out of discomfort and not an actual injury. That could set them back months and throw their entire plan off track.

But before Chiron could ask about Percy’s well-being, the boy was already talking.

“I’m not hurt or anything. Just pissed. I can’t believe I made such a stupid mistake. How far out of first place do you think that can put me?”

Chiron shrugged, they weren’t displaying the athlete’s scores, so they were all flying blind with who could potentially be in first place.

He tried to reassure him, “I don’t think it will be as detrimental as you’re thinking. You didn’t hit the mats, and your instincts kicked in so it was somewhat clean.”

Percy nodded dejectedly as Chiron continued, “Keep your head up, put this behind you, and I don’t think you’ll have anything to worry about.”

Percy didn’t reply, just put his head in his hands, and Chiron knew he needed space. Percy was his own worst critic, mistakes like this he always took personally, no matter how small. Especially since this was Percy’s best and favorite event.

Chiron gave him some space, he’d give him about 3 minutes to wallow and hope that Percy would be able to snap himself out of it before Chiron had to intervene.

He made his way to the vault just in time to see Annabeth’s second and final practice run.

“Nice.” He told her, “Just like practice.”

Annabeth replied, “How is he?”

“About as you would expect. I’ll knock some sense into him if he needs it, but I think he’ll pull through just fine. Now you have to hit these vaults.”

She nodded and took a deep breath.

They both looked up quickly at the sound of a springboard to see Hazel land her Amanar with a massive jump forward.

Annabeth cheered in congratulations along with the rest of the gym.

Chiron focused his attention now onto his other charge. Percy was up and walking around and talking to the other guys, joking around, and offering encouragement.

Definitely back to his regular competition form, _Thank the gods._

Chiron put his hand on Percy’s shoulder and squeezed, “How are you feeling?”

“Like my pride has been wounded, but that’s about it. I’m going to finish strong.”

Chiron smiled, “That’s what I like to hear.”

They had to wait for the rest of the guys to finish high bar and the women to finish their own rotation before proceeding to the next apparatus.

Annabeth was almost on deck for vault so Chiron headed back to her.

Thalia Grace’s vaults went over well. Annabeth hugged her as they exchanged places.

Annabeth dipped her hands into the chalk bucket and coated the bottoms of her feet. She took a few stationary steps as she waited for the go-ahead.

Once the flag was raised, she saluted and took off sprinting.

11 steps. That was all it took Annabeth to travel 84 feet.

Her round-off landed perfectly onto the springboard, propelling her backward. Both hands pounded off the table as she skyrocketed into the air, twisting two and a half times. Her only mishap was a step on the landing.

Chiron heard a chorus of cheers, himself included. The loudest of which was Percy.

Annabeth walked back down the runway to prepare for her second vault, slowly trying to catch her breath.

This next vault was one Annabeth had been doing for years, she could do this in her sleep if necessary.

So Chiron was not surprised when she finally took off running, jumped onto the springboard, flung herself forward onto the vaulting table, and blocked with all her might. She flew high and spun 1.5 times in the air.

Once Annabeth’s feet hit the ground, she didn’t budge an inch.

More cheers and applause erupted, the smile on Annabeth’s face was enormous. She high fived and hugged the other gymnasts on her way off the competition floor.

Chiron hugged her, “One more to go, then were another step closer to World’s.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes, “You don’t know that, we can’t see the scores, I could be in second place.”

“Fine. But when you hit your bar routine, I don’t think anyone will be able to catch you.”

It was then time to change events, the last rotation for the women, and the second to last for the men.

Annabeth and Percy’s groups would be switching places with each other, the women moving to bars and the men going to vault.

A million years had felt like they had elapsed, by the time Percy was finally up for vault. Annabeth, a water bottle and granola bar in tow, stood with Chiron to watch Percy’s performance. She shouted out tips and encouragement all the while.

His first vault was a Dragelescu.

A front handspring onto the table with a double front tuck and a half twist off.

It was one of the more challenging vaults being competed in the world. This vault would be absolutely necessary if Percy wanted a vault medal or the chance to be a contender in the All-Around.

This was still a relatively new vault for Percy, but when it came down to it, he performed excellently. Almost perfect, he stuck the landing, but his legs crossed in the air, so he landed with them slightly separated.

It was a small mistake, but one they couldn’t allow to turn into a habit. They’d have to work on that later.

His next vault was one they’d been looking to upgrade eventually too but just hadn’t found the time yet.

When competing two vaults, they had to have different entries onto the table. This one would be a backward entry vault.

In several steps Percy was down the runaway, he completed a round-off and a back handspring, flinging his body backward onto the table, then propelling himself into a double pike.

This time, he landed with his feet together but had too much momentum which caused him to have a decent-sized jump backward.

The gym erupted into cheers, as Percy happily exited the platform high-fiving and hugging other athletes as he went.

Chiron quickly ushered Annabeth over to the uneven bars, where she needed to be in line for her two touches. Percy followed, knowing he had an extended break until his last event on floor.

Annabeth meticulously began working on preparing her grips. She fastened the straps and began scraping with a block of chalk to get a nice even coating. She added water with a spray bottle and scratched at the grips with a scrub brush. Once the process was completed a couple of times Annabeth was satisfied with the outcome and it was finally her first pass on bars.

Chiron instructed her to take the first warm-up slowly. A quick jump to the high bar and back and a few pirouettes. This would help her see what else needed to be fixed on her grips or the bar in general before she began.

Finished, she went back to the bucket to add more chalk and water. On the next warm-up pass, she asked Chiron to scrub the bar and add more chalk to help her grip better. She seemed much more confident on the next pass, where she tried a couple of her release moves, all successfully.

Upon dismounting, she seemed extremely pleased with herself and eager to perform. Percy must be rubbing off on her more than Chiron thought, usually he was the overly confident one ready to show off and Annabeth was more subdued.

Annabeth, first in rotation had separated herself early from the others, in order to begin visualizing and preparing for her routine.

When the judges gave the signal, Annabeth saluted and her smile showed how excited she was. Either because it was the last event or her best, Chiron wasn’t too sure.

Next to him, Percy called out, “Come on Annabeth! You got this!”

He kept up this stream of encouragement as Annabeth mounted the bar and got to work.

Her first set of release moves were executed perfectly, as were the pirouettes, and transitions from the low to high bar. She had one more release move, a few more twists, and turns, and then she was winding up for the dismount.

A laid out double-twisting double back that she landed firmly, without any movement.

Percy was jumping up and down in excitement as Annabeth saluted the judges for the final time that afternoon.

“She has to be first? Don’t you think?” Percy asked excitedly.

Chiron hoped so, he honestly had no clue, having had to spend his time running back and forth, he didn’t have as much time to watch and of the other gymnasts. Something he would have needed to do to have any indication of the scores since they weren’t posted anywhere.

Annabeth was swarmed by other girls who had watched her routine, after finishing themselves. They laughed and hugged, and released all the anxiety they had been holding in all day.

Many girls, however, were still waiting for their turn or were sitting in distress. These must be the girls who had fallen or made a major mistake sometime throughout the day.

It would still take a couple of more hours until they knew the final results, until then Chiron knew Annabeth was still going to be a bundle of nerves. In his opinion, no one could beat her, not when she hit all four events. Her difficulty and execution were unmatched, but he could be biased, especially considering he hadn’t seen too many other routines.

They didn’t have time to think about that yet, though. Percy was already warming up floor, his last event.

Chiron headed that way, Annabeth following close behind, she stopped occasionally to hug and high-five the other athletes as she went.

On the other side of the gym, Chiron watched as Percy under-rotated his 3.5 twists.

“You’re going to have to give it a bit more power than that,” Chiron called out.

Percy shot him a thumbs up and got back in line behind Frank Zhang. He was one of the guys that they had worked with to try and help improve and refine his floor skills. From watching Frank’s one pass, Chiron could tell he had made significant improvements and upgrades from their time working together.

Frank was a great gymnast, his main strengths came from the strength of his muscles. He was a marvelous rings, parallel bar, and pommel horse worker. Percy had learned just as much from combining their workouts as Frank had.

“He’s gotta be in first right? How bad do you think his slip-on uneven bars hurt him?” Annabeth asked.

Chiron shrugged, “It’s hard to tell at this point, I have a feeling he’s in first, especially after winning by 3 points at Nationals, but I think it’s anyone’s game right now.”

Annabeth exhaled loudly, “This is so nerve-wracking.”

“1 hour, that’s all we have left,” Chiron said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, “Who are you lying to? Me or yourself?”

Chiron laughed, he wasn’t entirely sure.

Of course, Percy was the last gymnast of the day to compete. He finally saluted the judges to begin the last routine of the day.

His first pass, a laid-out double-twisting double was beautiful. His next, a double front with a half twist, was much of the same.

Coming out of the pass, Percy jumped straight up and landed on his stomach. He brought one leg forward so he was sitting in a split, in order to show off his flexibility. He held the split for a few seconds before beginning his flairs.

“Keep it up! Push!” Annabeth was cheering.

The rest of the crowd joined in as Percy leaped from hand to hand as his legs circled around his body. Percy tried to teach it to some of the other guys during camp, but none of them were able to get it. Percy made it look so easy, it was hard to believe that it took him months to finally be able to perfect the skill.

His next pass was the first mistake that Chiron noticed. A round-off to a 1.5 twist into a 3.5 twist had just a small step to the side on the landing.

Percy then immediately went into his butterfly kick into a dive roll into the next corner. The series was the same exact one that Annabeth had in her floor routine.

A tradition they started when they were young kids and just never seemed to change.

Percy had a little too much momentum on his second to last pass which led to another hop back on the landing. _At least he stayed inbounds._

He stuck the dismount, a double Arabian with a half twist on the end. Chiron and Annabeth were cheering and yelling before Percy even got the chance to salute.

Percy saluted the judges and ran off the floor, his chest rising and falling with deep breaths.

He slammed hard into Annabeth and Chiron, in excitement and relief. The three of them celebrated together until Athena walked past with her assistants in tow. She shot them a sidelong glance that halted their excitement until they were fully out of the gym.

One of the assistant coaches came over on a microphone, “Athena Parthenos, the National Team Coordinator will be announcing the results shortly, please stand by.”

***

They waited…

And waited…

And waited some more.

Chiron had half a mind to order a pizza, he knew after all this time waiting, Annabeth and Percy were probably starving. _He_ definitely was.

“You got any of those protein bars left?” Chiron asked.

Percy laughed, “You’re funny. Those were gone like an hour and a half ago.”

He could tell the crowd was getting restless too, this was pretty ridiculous considering that the only thing the National team staff should be doing was calculating the results. No major decisions were supposed to be made at this point in time.

All the athletes had congregated in the middle of the floor and were talking amongst themselves. Some coaches sat on the folding plastic chairs off the competition stage and others, like Chiron, sat on the floor off to the side of all the gymnasts.

After 2 and a half hours, Athena finally decided to grace them with her presence again. The athletes parted, as she took center stage in the middle of the floor. A man off to her right in a suit carried two bouquets of flowers and two plaques.

“Athletes, coaches, family, and friends. Thank you for being here today.” Athena said regally over the microphone.

“I have the pleasure of announcing the winners of today’s World Team Selection Competition. For the women’s competition. In third place is Hazel Levesque.”

Hazel jumped up and hugged her coach excited, despite not winning, she still had great odds of making the Worlds team.

“In second place, is Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano.”

Reyna was nowhere near excited as Hazel. Second place often did that to a gymnast. Being so close to first and missing out was never a good feeling. Reyna’s coach, her older sister, Hippolyta did little to comfort the girl, they both stood stoically still and nodded to Athena as if they had just come to some sort of business transaction.

“And in first place,” Annabeth grabbed Chiron’s arm in anticipation, “is Annabeth Chase.”

Chiron’s ears were ringing as Annabeth hugged him and Percy. Cheers erupted from the athletes and crowd. Even Reyna was clapping.

She was quickly shown to Athena’s side where she was handed the flowers and the plaque. A photographer was snapping pictures until Athena waved them aside. Annabeth was then asked to stand at Athena’s right-hand side while the Men’s results were announced.

“Now the results for the Men’s competition. In third place is Octavian Caesar.”

The boy had no reaction, clearly, he was not pleased with himself.

“In second place, Jason Grace.”

Jason waved to the crowd as they cheered for him. Jupiter next to him clamped a controlling hand on his son’s shoulder.

Percy was grabbing onto Chiron’s arm now, a wide smile on his face. There was no way, with Percy’s routines today, that he could have been placed lower than third.

Despite knowing what was about to happen, Chiron was still taken aback when Athena said, “And in first place is Perseus Jackson.”

Percy in his excitement didn’t even wince at his full name. He jumped up and went through the same steps that Annabeth had.

Afterward, his two athletes embraced hard, laughing, and jumping in each other’s arms. Chiron joined in, throwing his arms around them and lifted them both off the ground. The sounds of the thundering crowd registered second to the laughter and excitement of Percy and Annabeth as their dreams of making the World team finally came true.


	17. Annabeth

Annabeth went through the next few weeks in a daze. They were able to celebrate their win for a bit before returning to the gym.

Immediately after the meet Annabeth, Percy, and Chiron went out for pizza with Sally, Mr. Blofis, and Grover. It was a post-meet tradition they had never faltered. 

The 6 of them spent the rest of the night laughing and celebrating together. Percy was so excited, he didn’t even have time to be awkward around Sally’s boyfriend. He even called him Paul once, which Annabeth filed away in the back of her brain so she could tease him about it later.

It was a great night and later once they had a full day of rest and relaxation, Sally let them have a small party at the apartment with some of their friends from school and the gym.

It was usually strange combining the two groups but everyone was so happy for Annabeth and Percy that there was no normal separation or general awkwardness between their gym friends and their school friends.

They had an extra day off of just physical therapy afterward to recuperate before they needed to get back to the gym full time.

There were almost two months between now and World’s and they had to make sure they were fully prepared if they wanted to have any chance of medaling in any way possible.

Worlds would have several different varieties of competitions with multiple chances to medal. They'd have to be at the top of their game in order to even come close to medaling in any category.

There was the team competition, where different countries put together a team of their best gymnasts to compete against one another, then the All-Around where the top 24 gymnasts competed against each other individually. After all of that was event finals, where the top-scoring gymnasts on each apparatus went head to head, to see who truly the best in the World was.

Medaling in the all-around was unlikely for both Annabeth and Percy, as first-year seniors, it was highly improbable that they would be able to beat other gymnasts much more experienced than they were. The Team competition or even maybe an event final would be where their best chances were at.

This was the main reason, Annabeth was actually starting to put effort into training her Cheng. As annoying and awful as it had been having her mother force her to start practicing a tough and dangerous skill, and Annabeth would never admit this out loud, but Athena was kinda right. If she wanted a shot at a vault medal or to place as a team, then Annabeth would need a skill that was highly rewarded, like the Cheng.

So vault was Annabeth’s priority, for the next two and a half months until World’s in October or until her Cheng was consistent. Whichever came first.

Luckily Percy understood, so he only complained a little when she insisted vault be the event they start with.

Practices were so much easier now that they didn’t have school to contend with. Most days, they had the full day to do whatever they wanted at the gym. But that wouldn’t last long, school was starting next month and their schedule would soon be changing.

But, for the time being, It was refreshing to not feel like their every second had to be strategically and deliberately paced. Chiron had every second of a school day practice carefully planned and there was no room to stop for anything but water and snack breaks.

Now, they had some time to mess around, while they polished up and put finishing touches on the routines they’d compete with in Italy.

They had even started pulling full days in order to get extra training sessions in. Those practices Percy and Annabeth got to the gym at 8:00 in the morning, practiced for a few hours, ate, took a nap on the mats in the gym, and then started practicing again once the rec classes started in the afternoon.

It was a glorious routine, Annabeth and Percy enjoyed and loved every minute of it, but there was still that crippling anxiety of World’s approaching closer and closer with each passing day.

“Take it one day at a time,” Chiron told them one afternoon when neither Annabeth nor Percy could seem to stay on their respective apparatuses.

Annabeth couldn’t catch a release move to save her life and it seemed Percy couldn’t land a tumbling pass to save his.

Rough practices were commonplace, mistakes at practice were normal. That was how they learned. If you were too afraid to make a mistake, then you were never going to get any better.

It was normal for their sport. But it was completely uncharacteristic to drop almost every skill they were throwing. Chiron even stopped giving them advice on what to do. He knew they knew what to do, their block was entirely mental. For a few days, they were able to count on one hand the skills they collectively completed successfully. 

They had to break this before leaving for Worlds, or their world debut was going to be short-lived and catastrophic.

The most frustrating part of the week, finally came to a breaking point when Annabeth missed a step on her vault run, completely throwing off the sequence, instead of springing into the air, she slid on her stomach right off the table like a torpedo. She landed on a firm mat with a ‘thud’.

Percy didn’t even have the ability to laugh, the way they normally did when the other failed miserably.

Then he missed a hand on parallel bars, his momentum threw him to the side of the apparatus where he face planted. The chalk from the mats, exploded up and around Percy in a cloud that on any other day would have had both Annabeth and Chiron on the ground rolling with laughter.

Now, she just felt tired. She could see that same tiredness reflected in Percy’s eyes as he blinked the chalk out of them while remaining motionless on the ground.

“Can we grab lunch and decompress?” Percy asked not making any effort to get up. “I think I just need a break to clear my head.”

Annabeth agreed, and Chiron because he wasn’t a ruthless dictator, agreed as well.

They decided to take the subway into the city so they could have an extended break, if they kept pushing themselves like this the risk of an injury or complete mental breakdown would be far greater than normal.

“I can’t believe school starts next week,” Annabeth sighed in between bites of her sandwich.

Percy groaned, “Don’t remind me, I’m trying to pretend it doesn’t.”

“Plus there are cameras showing up for NBC’s vignette.” She added.

Percy dropped his head down into his hands, “All this stress, no wonder I can’t even cartwheel without falling over.”

Annabeth felt that. They had so much to do and so many milestones and deadlines all falling and occurring around the same time, that it was beginning to feel like too much.

She agreed with him, “Maybe tomorrow we can take a half-day. That way we can get everything done for school and then relax a little before we try and get back to the gym part-time before Worlds. We’re gonna burn ourselves out at this point.”

Percy nodded in agreement. The start of the school year was always overwhelming, and then adding in the aspect of being followed around by television cameras, even for a limited time at Goode Academy was a terrifying prospect. But one, they agreed to nonetheless. Then barely a month into school, World's began. Which would be an entirely different stressful experience on its own. 

At least they had each other, which at this point in time was their only saving grace. Annabeth couldn’t imagine going at this alone, she wasn’t sure how other gymnasts were able to handle all the mounting pressure.

They finished their food and walked around the city. Window shopping, strolling through the park and making fun of tourists as they craned their necks to look at the skyscrapers or posed for pictures in front of famous landmarks.

Feeling significantly more relaxed, they decided to make their way back to Olympia.

Chiron was waiting in the office, a cup of coffee and a newspaper in his hands.

“Ready for practice?” Chiron asked happily as if the earlier sessions had never happened.

They agreed, and explained their upcoming plans to get themselves back on track, Chiron agreed, and even threw in a few extra physical and regular therapy sessions to make sure their bodies and minds were intact and ready to endure the tough work they would be doing soon.

Before practice began again Chiron had a few parting words as they went to change back into their workout gear, “I know that World’s right now seems daunting, there’s a lot of mounting pressure and it’s overwhelming, but you two are in the best possible situation for this. And not because you are the best gymnasts I’ve ever seen, but because World’s can just be a time for you two to get your names out there. Stop putting so much pressure on yourselves. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You have the opportunity to let the rest of the World love you the way fans here in the U.S. do.”

Something clicked in Annabeth’s head.

As usual, Chiron was right. Annabeth was putting so much pressure on herself. She was drowning under her own expectations. This was a meet to get her name on the international stage and to help prepare for the Olympics. All she could do was her best, and whatever medals came attached to that, all the better.

She looked to Percy, by the determined look in his eye, and the smirk on his face, he had a similar epiphany.

They hit the gym like a force of nature.

The earlier session and beginning of the week’s mistakes and difficulties were completely erased from their memory. New life had been shot straight into their veins. They nailed every skill, completed every routine almost, if not, perfectly.

The mounting pressure was completely forgotten as they returned back to themselves and the idea of everything just being a normal day at practice.

Percy was finally becoming consistent with his high bar release move.

“I’m actually starting to see everything now, my air awareness is so much better.” He said, laying in the foam pit, after hitting the skill 5 times in a row. After days of dropping the skill, Percy looked like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “It’s still terrifyingly awesome, but the fear of falling has pretty much left.”

That was how Annabeth felt about her Cheng, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as her Amanar, but it was competition ready and that would have to do.

***

The cameras followed them around Goode Academy for most of the morning. Sometimes it was easy to forget they were there. Like when they got wide shots of the halls and classrooms, then it was easy to pretend they were there for someone else. But when they got close-ups of Annabeth and Percy opening their lockers, or looking at a syllabus, or greeting a friend they haven’t seen for months, then it was pretty hard to ignore.

“What a great way to start our junior year,” Percy murmured as they walked together into Blofis’ class.

They took their seats next to Grover, breathing a sigh of relief that the three of them hadn’t been separated as they had been in some of their other classes.

A cameraman followed them to get a shot of Annabeth and Percy sitting on either side of Grover.

While Blofis was going over the syllabus (The same that it had been since Freshman year), the two of them were then asked to step out in the hall to give a quick interview that would be used in the vignette. At this point, neither Percy nor Annabeth knew what would be worse, sitting through the same presentation for the third time in a row or giving an interview. The quicker this was all over, the better.

Walking out, they saw Mr. Brunner finish up his own interview with a different camerawoman. He gave a quick thumbs up and a smile as he returned to his classroom.

“At least they talked to a teacher that likes the both of us,” Annabeth said, she shuddered to think about what Mrs. Dodds would have said about Percy. She then added hopefully, “By Thanksgiving break, everyone will forget.”

Luckily for them, many of the students at Goode were used to this type of thing, they had rich fancy parents, so some weren’t fazed and went on about their day as normal. However, others stopped to stare outright, mouths agape, leaving Annabeth and Percy to feel like complete freaks.

Most of their classmates, especially those in different grade levels, had no idea about their extracurricular activity and so it must have seemed weird that on the first day of school 4 different news cameras were following around Annabeth and Percy.

Unlike their sophomore year, Annabeth and Percy had lunch with Grover. By then, the cameras were gone, having decided they had gotten enough footage of Annabeth and Percy acting ‘normal.’

Lunch was a reprieve, they had time to just hang out, especially with Grover, which they hadn’t really been able to do since their celebration party after camp.

The cameras being gone was like a weight being lifted off their chests. They were able to breathe regularly again. They sat outside, as the nice weather began to change from the intense heat of the summer to a mild and pleasant autumn.

They spent their time talking and joking around. Everything was normal until Nancy Bobofit decided she needed to ruin everything like she normally did. Unfortunately, they had gone to school with her since middle school, and she never failed to annoy them in some capacity. It was just the beginning of school tradition at this point.

“Grover, don’t you feel a little out of your depth with these two? Does it ever get boring being a tag-along or the helpless sidekick?”

Percy’s fists were clenched and he was on his feet in a millisecond. His face snarling in anger, “Shut up Nancy, and leave us alone,”

Annabeth was holding him back, mostly for show, she knew he wouldn’t hit her, but Nancy knew how to spark Percy’s anger perfectly.

Attacking and making fun of his friends, was a sure-fire way to piss him off. Which of course Nancy knew.

Nancy sighed dramatically. “Oh no, I’m so afraid,” she turned to walk away, for which Annabeth was thankful. But, at the last second, before anyone could react, she snatched Grover’s backpack, grabbed the top strap with two hands, spun quickly, and released. They watched as the bag sailed and arced its way onto the top of the covered awning above the lunch tables.

She cackled loudly while walking back to her table with her friends who were all laughing with her. The rest of the students outside were quiet, shifting their gazes back and forth between Nancy’s group and the three of them.

“Have fun, you three!” Nancy jeered.

Grover sat there, completely silent, staring at his lunch. Refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

Annabeth felt for him, Grover usually took the brunt of Nancy’s cruelty. She always singled him out as the weakest link of their trio. Which was ridiculous.

It’s okay, Grover, we got this.” Percy told him as he put a comforting hand on his back.

Annabeth got up from the table with him, knowing Percy’s plan already.

This was a trick that Annabeth and Percy had been practicing in their free time at the gym, something they had picked up from watching the cheerleaders practice from time to time.

Percy grabbed Annabeth around the waist, and hoisted her into the air, catching her feet in his hands so she was standing upright above his head, completely level with the metal awning.

She silently cursed Nancy, she definitely had a great throwing arm to be able to get Grover’s backpack so far onto the roof. If she wasn’t on the school's track and field team, she needed to be.

Annabeth stepped onto the awning, hoping it was strong enough to support her weight for the split second she’d be up there. It certainly was a strange vantage point to see the school from, but she didn’t want to dawdle and draw the attention of the faculty and staff.

This was never a scenario covered in the student code of conduct, so Annabeth had no clue the punishment she could receive if she was caught on top of the cafeteria.

She quickly grabbed Grover’s bag and jumped off, knowing wholeheartedly and without a doubt, that Percy would catch her.

He set her carefully onto the ground. As if this was something they did every other day.

“Thank you,” Annabeth said to him as she set the bag down and resumed her lunch as nothing had happened.

“Any time,” Percy said with a smile and a wink.

Nancy’s group was no longer laughing and instead sat with several different shocked expressions.

They paid them no attention.

Thankfully, Grover was laughing as they both sat back down and resumed their lunch and conversation.

But before they could continue with their lunch, one of the senior cheerleaders, Kelly, had run up to them excitedly.

“That was amazing! How come neither of you has ever tried out for Goode’s cheer team?”

Annabeth’s eyes widened. She didn’t want to seem arrogant or rude, Percy however, couldn’t stop himself from a quick bout of laugher. One sharp look from Annabeth and he quickly quieted. “Sorry,” Annabeth said, “we just don’t have time.”

“Well, I’m the captain and I would accept you all on the team at any time without a tryout. Just let me know, this kind of opportunity doesn’t come around all the time. Can you tumble?”

Annabeth laughed herself now. “Moderately,“ She answered at the same time Percy said, “We’re decent.”

The cheerleader’s words were racing, “Then you’re probably better than at least half the team. We could really use your talent. With you, we can finally beat Yancy Academy at our major tri-county competition.”

Grover was staring at her slack-jawed, while Annabeth and Percy tried to remain polite and convince her they weren’t able to join the school's Cheer Team at this current point in time. They didn’t want to act like they were superior or like they were bragging about their abilities.

“You should tell her,” Grover suggested.

Annabeth and Percy both shook their heads. They never liked to draw too much attention to themselves at school. Today had been an anomaly that neither wanted to repeat.

Everyone eating outside was still staring confused at Annabeth and Percy, as they tried to figure out how they were able to perform their earlier stunt. Luckily for them, it appeared no teachers or administrators were there to witness.

Only by promising to think about her offer, were they able to convince Kelly to leave. Reluctantly, Kelly returned to her table of cheerleaders who waved excitedly and cheerfully at Annabeth and Percy. Though Annabeth had a feeling she wasn’t going to give up that easy.

Luckily, the cheerleaders were exactly what was necessary to help Grover put Nancy Bobofit completely out of their minds. The three of them laughed at the encounter and went their separate ways once lunch was over.

Grover and Percy walked together in the opposite direction on their way to science, Percy talked passionately about something, probably about how much he hated Nancy and the look on her face when Annabeth was up on the roof.

Annabeth knew Percy would be thinking about the other girl’s comments for at least the rest of the day. Percy was too loyal of a friend to let an insult to Grover go unchecked or let Grover think that what Nancy said had any sort of credibility. She hoped he wouldn’t do or say something stupid this close to World’s and on the very first day of school.

The remainder of this year sure was going to be interesting.

***

It was quite the adjustment adding school back into the mix, especially knowing that they’d have to be leaving for Rome in a matter of weeks.

Practices were back to what they used to be, and they both had put that horrible dark time behind them. Annabeth was starting to feel comfortable with her routines and the prospect of soon competing against all the best gymnasts in the world.

Their endurance and stamina were at an all-time high, and they couldn’t let that fall now that school had begun again.

In just two weeks, they would have a week-long session at camp with just the team and then that was it. They’d be heading to Rome. They had already bought their tickets to get there almost two days earlier than necessary for some sight-seeing and to get acclimated to the time change. Gymnastics and jet lag did not go hand in hand.

Together, Annabeth and Percy went to their teachers and explained the situation. Annabeth knew that if she left Percy to do this on his own, he would wait until the day before they left.

Luckily, their teachers were all very understanding and happy for them. Some even promised to watch on TV. Throughout the next few days, they were sporadically given work that they would be missing during the almost month of school they would be absent for.

After each practice, Annabeth would try and convince Percy to complete at least one additional assignment to try and stay on top of their work. Sally usually offered to drive them back, but Annabeth had been opting for the subway because it gave them a full 45 minutes to actually work on their assignments, because as soon as they got back to the apartment neither of them felt like doing anything except going to sleep.

They fell into a comfortable and productive routine. Taking each day, one at a time, without looking too far ahead. They made short term goals, which they changed and added to once they were accomplished.

Eventually, it was time to head to camp, back to Athena’s complex, for a week of heavy training to prepare for Rome as a team.

On the drive up, Annabeth and Percy spent their time constantly refreshing Chiron’s email on his phone to see who else made the World’s team. Athena was very tight-lipped about the final selection of the team. Gymnasts who placed 2-11 at the selection competition, were allowed to stay at Camp to prove to Athena that they deserved a chance at the Worlds team. Today was when the final decision would be made, they eagerly waited to see who they would be competing with and against.

They were about 30 minutes out from the complex when the email finally came in.

It was brief.

**To: Chiron**

**From: Athena Parthenos**

Below are the men’s and women’s Worlds team going to Rome, Italy.

Women: Men:

Annabeth Chase Percy Jackson

Thalia Grace Jason Grace

Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano Leo Valdez

Piper McLean Frank Zhang

Hazel Levesque Charles Beckendorf

Selena Beauregard Octavian Cesar

Rachel Elizabeth Dare (Alternate) Connor Stoll (Alternate)

They cheered loudly, excited to see many of their friends had made the team. Chiron made a ‘hmph’ noise once she read the names aloud. She had a feeling he didn’t agree totally with the decision but that would be a conversation for a different time.

“I can’t wait to see who we room with in Italy,” Annabeth said.

“You may be jumping a bit too far ahead there, you have to survive this week first. If you two thought that development camp was tough, this week before worlds will be even worse.” Chiron explained, “Last time there was 40 of you, now there’s 14, prepare for the toughest workouts and conditioning yet, and to have every moment criticized and nitpicked.”

“Luckily, it appears as though my mother has prepared me for this week, my entire life.”

She had meant it as a joke, but when the words came out they were much bleaker than she had intended.

Chiron took a deep breath, “Same rules stand. We’re going to take each day as it comes. All the way through Worlds. Also, remember, you two should be having fun, I know camp was exhausting, but at the selections meet you two looked completely out of character. Remember why we do this in the first place.”

***

The next week was the most grueling of Annabeth’s life.

She had never pushed her body to the limits they were being expected to. Each night, they fell into bed exhausted and each morning they'd wake up sore. 

But she and Percy had survived, barely. And they were all the better for it.

They had never been in better shape than they were right now. Hopefully, that would be evident in their medal count.

***

“Is it too late to opt for a boat,” Percy nervously asked as the plane taxied out to the runway.

Chiron had already leaned back in his seat. To Percy’s annoyance, since they had been specifically instructed not to do that until they were at a cruising altitude. With closed eyes, Chiron replied with a simple and terse, “Yes.”

Percy huffed and Annabeth resisted the urge to smile, she knew from experience that would do nothing to help Percy’s nerves.

Instead, she entwined her arm around one of his.

“What do you want to eat first after World’s?” She asked him. This was a sure-fire way to take Percy’s mind off the takeoff portion of the flight, the rest she’d have to improvise, hopefully, they’d be able to fall asleep and get some rest.

They’d have about a day and a half before practice started. And only two of those before qualifications began. Getting their bearings and beating the time difference was going to be crucial.

“Sleep as much as you can,” Chiron told them when they were finally at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. “You’re going to need it, when we land, were spending as much time outside and in the sun. It’s the best way to beat the jet lag.”

His tone was of warning. “Oh no,” Percy said, “Outside in a beautiful city in Italy, that sounds awful.”

Chiron smiled, then leaned back in his seat again.

Percy hadn’t yet relaxed enough for sleep, he still had a death grip on the arm rests, and his shoulders were scrunched up to his ears. He had only just put the safety manual back in the pocket on the back of the seat in front of him.

They finally settled on a Marvel movie, and Annabeth hoped that would be enough to get Percy to forget that they were thousands of feet in the air. Halfway through, and she had finally felt him loosen up, his shoulders were no longer tight and hunched, and his head was starting to lull to the side instead of looking around at every unknown sound.

They were well over the Atlantic and in the middle of a third movie when Annabeth heard a small thud, she turned in her seat to see Percy’s head lulled to the side finally passed out.

Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief, getting Percy relaxed enough to sleep was always the hardest part. She pushed up the armrest separating the two of them and rested her head against his shoulder.

Within minutes she was asleep as well.

Annabeth awoke to a bright light in her eyes. Blinking herself awake she saw Percy opening the plane's window cover, which could only mean one thing.

They had landed.

“Look!” Percy said, pointing at the ground, “Roman ground. Finally!”

Annabeth was surprised, “We’re there already?” She had only closed her eyes and rested against Percy not more than 20 minutes ago.

“Yeah, I woke up on the decent, we figured it would be best to let you sleep more.”

Then it hit her, they were in Italy. Gymnastics had brought her all over the world. Peru, Canada, Germany, China, Japan, Australia, and even a few others, but this was her first time in Italy. 

After what felt like years, they were finally off the plane and collecting their several sets of luggage each. They’d be here for a couple of weeks at the least, so they needed several different types of leotards. Some for practice, podium training, qualifications, team finals (if they made it), all-around finals (if they made it), and event finals (if they made it).

98% of the wardrobe they brought to Italy was leotards, with one nice outfit for a party they were invited to by the Worlds Gymnastics Committee and about a weeks’ worth of normal clothes, since that was all they’d need. They had a few days before and after the competitions to sightsee and unfortunately, that would be it, since they couldn’t miss too much school.

Annabeth was always worried that the flight would lose their luggage with their leotards in it. They were crazy expensive and a requirement for the competition.

Luckily, they grabbed their belongings with no hassle and quickly boarded a taxi that would take them to the hotel they were staying at before the rest of the team and Athena arrived in Rome. Then they’d be rooming with other, members of the team with a strict schedule.

“You have 20 minutes to put your things down and get ready for the day, then we're hitting the town,” Chiron told them, his tone implied this would be an arduous task instead of spending a day in paradise.

“Why does he make that seem ominous?” Percy asked?

Annabeth agreed, “It’s like he signed us up for a Marathon instead of traveling around a beautiful city. I can’t wait to see some of the architecture, I’ve only seen it in pictures.”

“You’re weird,” Percy said, But he was smiling wide and his eyes were soft, so she knew he didn’t mean it. At least not as an insult.

***

Chiron turned into a drill sergeant. He was more demanding now than he was during practice.

They saw what felt like the entire city in a single afternoon, stopping by all the major landmarks. The Colosseum, St. Peter’s Basilica, The Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain, the Roman Forum, the Spanish Steps, and even a few different piazzas.

They spent a good 20 to 30 minutes at each place. But as the day continued, the more their fatigue grew. 

Annabeth couldn’t believe she was getting tired surrounded by all the amazing and beautiful sights, history, and architecture. But after being on a plane for more than 8 hours and then immediately hitting the ground running was a lot to deal with.

“Keep this up, we have a few more stops before we can eat again. And then maybe head back to the hotel.”

Percy was slumped against a wall, his exhaustion on full display, “Remind me why we’re doing this again?”

Chiron took a deep breath. This was the third time he had explained his reasoning. “Being out in the sun is one of the best ways to beat the time change and jet lag. I won’t have the two of you going to practice tomorrow disoriented. The rest of the team is gonna have a hell of a time getting acclimated tonight.”

Practicing and competing while jet-lagged could be very dangerous, their bodies and brains still felt 5 hours behind. Tomorrow they’d be practicing at 9 in the morning, but it would feel more like 4 am New York time. This was not the time to risk an injury, so Chiron was being extra careful and deliberate with their actions.

It was another hour before Chiron led them into a restaurant and they finally were able to sit, rest their legs, and eat.

“Thank god for Wi-Fi,” Percy said logging in.

They had taken a bunch of pictures, that they were both eager to send to Sally and post to their social media pages.

The Gymnastics community had a huge online presence, and both Annabeth and Percy enjoyed posting fun things and watching the fans speculate and freak out. It was always fun watching the aftermath of posting a video of a new skill or one they completed perfectly. Once they both won the American Cup, they received an influx of followers on Twitter and Instagram.

Now that they had officially made the World’s team, they were even more people trying to keep up with them. Which was a strange thought for Annabeth to wrap her mind around.

“This is a good one,” Annabeth said excitedly. She showed him a picture of the two of them doing handstands on the outer rim of the Trevi Fountain. Annabeth posted that to Twitter with the caption ‘When in Rome,’ just to be cute.

Almost immediately she had a couple of dozen likes.

Percy found a great one of the two of them upside down, in the middle of a back flip inside the Colosseum. He posted his own tweet, with a simple fraction of 23/196. It was his count of how many countries they had officially flipped in.

They called Sally wanting to talk about their day and how much fun they were having in Rome, completely forgetting, for a second about the 5 hour time difference. Though, she picked up regardless.

Her voice was groggy and alert at the same time, “Is everything alright?”

Percy immediately felt terrible, “Sorry for waking you, we just wanted to say Hi and that we can’t wait till you’re here in a couple of days.”

Sally was flying over separately once the competition actually started. There really wasn’t a need for her to be there the week of practice.

They talked very quickly, and then let Sally go back to sleep.

The food arrived and Chiron pulled out his phone with their master schedule on it.

“Your practice time isn’t scheduled for the afternoon tomorrow, so we’ll start with physical therapy in the morning. The first full practice you have will be the next day. Saturday is podium training. Then Qualifications. Women on Sunday, men on Monday. ”

Qualifications were crucial. That portion was the first step to making finals. If you did poorly during qualifications then the entire meet could be ruined and you may not even be able to move forward from there.

It was one competition to determine all the others.

The gymnasts would compete individually and have their scores added with their teammates, the top 8 countries would compete against each other first. Women first and then the men. The top 24 individual scores would then compete in the All-Around after that. Then the last two days were the event finals, the top 8 gymnasts on each apparatus would go head to head, it was the only time during this meet that women and men would be competing at the same time. Thankfully, it would be the only time they had to work out a plan to see each other compete.

Annabeth and Percy had switched their mindset since the selection camp competition. They were looking forward to this meet more than anything, instead of being nervous or worried about what would happen. The anxiety was still there, it always would be, wrapped around Annabeth’s throat like a scarf, but she refused to let it control her.

Competitions were the best part of gymnastics. A chance to show off and prove themselves. And see where they matched up against the best in the world. The reigning world champion Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos, from France, was here and many other notable names, like Aliya Mustafina from Russia or the Downie sisters from England, Cheng Fei from China, and Mai Murakami from Japan amongst so many others.

Annabeth had been watching these girls for years, and couldn’t believe she was finally able to compete against them. And that wasn’t even including the girls from the US. Reyna was the reigning US national champion, who didn’t deserve to be overlooked, just because Annabeth beat her at Camp. They weren’t allowed to see the scores so, Annabeth could have beaten her by 5 points or .001 points. The more she thought about it the more she was likely to spin herself into a panic spiral.

She shook herself out of her reverie. Overthinking was going to be her downfall during this meet and she couldn’t let that overwhelm her. Annabeth put all thoughts of the competition to the side. They’d take everything one day at a time, and pretend this was just another practice. It was the only way to get through the next few days with an upbeat and positive attitude.

Whatever Annabeth and Percy’s fate would be, they’d know in just two weeks’ time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, for how long and all over the place this chapter is, the next one should be up much quicker because it's going to be the actual competition (at least one part of it), which I'm really excited to write. I hope you all enjoy!!


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